I think about that with kids - you want to do everything for them, but you realize if you do everything and you make it easy on them, they won't learn anything and then they will walk around life needing their mamas all the time, and that isn't attractive.

The thing I know about Diana Trout is that she's the hardest-working person. She even says it in season one - that nobody works harder than she does. I believe that's always been true about her. That is why she has high expectations of everyone around her.

I would love to be remembered for ridding the world of disease, but my knowledge of science comes from episodes of 'Nova' and shows on the Discovery Channel. I don't think a superficial understanding of shark behavior and black holes can help cure diseases.

'Hedwig' was the first audition my agent ever sent me on. I still have the slip of paper where I wrote down the appointment. I wrote down, 'Headwitch and the Angry Itch. Yitzhak. Croatian ex-drag queen billed as the last Jewess of the Balkans Krystal Nacht.'

I think about that with kids - you want to do everything for them, but you realize if you do everything, and you make it easy on them, they won't learn anything, and then they will walk around life needing their mamas all the time, and that isn't attractive.

I used to go and hang out at Patricia Field's store when it was on 8th street before it moved downtown. Amanda Lepore would be there, and I would be obsessed with the shoes and the make-up - everything. I just knew it was a creative place that I wanted to be around.

My dad was a professor, and he had a Fulbright to teach in Venice, so we lived there when I was really little, and then we moved to Detroit, like you do. But then my parents split up, and my mom had just fallen in love with Italy, so she decided to move back to Torino.

Lily Tomlin, Judi Dench, Carol Burnett, Linda Emond, Meryl Streep, Janet Mctyre. I saw all these women on stage, and I experienced a feeling that is the artistic equivalent of huffing paint - the world kind of went away, and I felt exhilarated. Also, I drooled a little.

My very first show that I ever did was a show called 'Then Came You'. It became a huge hit - no, it didn't. But it was a sitcom with some great people involved, and the story was about an older woman and a younger guy. I was the older woman's best friend. I was 27 years old.

On some level, some of the challenges end up being similar, which is when you have a very emotional scene to shoot. As an actor, you have to prepare a certain way, but you also have to prepare a certain way when you're a director because you have to be sure you're telling the whole story.

I think we've all been in relationships - whether they're romantic relationships or not - where there are things that you excuse because you want it to work, because you are hopeful, because you've invested in this relationship, and you might not otherwise let them fly, but you're being optimistic.

I don't think it's a sad thing for a woman to not be in a relationship if she doesn't want to be. I feel like nobody looks at men who aren't in relationships and like, I don't know. It seems to be something looking at women like oh that's sad. But you have to look at what they want out of their lives.

I do work really hard to be nice to people. Well, actually, I think it doesn't take much effort to be nice to people, so why shouldn't we all be nice to each other? But I do appreciate very much a woman who is in a position of power who is unapologetic about her position and her belief in her own abilities.

I do feel like especially nowadays, we are inundated with the message that, "Oh my god, you aren't making your own clothes? You didn't make your own bread? And you also don't have a career and you don't look unbelievable and you have 5 pounds on your frame? Where is your book that you haven't published yet?"

I remember auditioning for something where the woman was supposed to be 42, and I was 33 or something, and they were like, 'No women over 35 can audition.' That was in the breakdown. I don't think they would do that anymore - I would like to hope that they wouldn't put that in writing - but it's mind-boggling.

I do feel like, especially nowadays, we are inundated with the message that, 'Oh my God, you aren't making your own clothes? You didn't make your own bread? And you also don't have a career, and you don't look unbelievable, and you have 5 pounds on your frame? Where is your book that you haven't published yet?'

The idea that you won't have a job is a real fear that people go through, so when people talk about jobs and say, 'I'm gonna create jobs!' or, 'There's gonna be a loss of jobs,' those are just words. But the reality of someone actually losing their job - I mean, it's their entire life for most people in this country.

I live near Thompson Square Park, and there are a lot of colorful people I see in the park - a lot of different personalities and homeless people - you get to know them. And every now and then, there is suddenly someone who is no longer around, and you're just like, 'Wow,' but you never really know what happened to them.

My sister gave my two-and-a-half year old this book called 'And Tango Makes Three,' about the gay penguin couple at the Central Park Zoo. They cared for an orphan egg 'til it hatched and then raised the baby penguin as their own. I cannot get through this book without copious amounts of tears and snot running down my face.

As the director, it's just a constant stream of meetings where you meet with all of the creatives who make all of the decisions for every part of the episodes. You're also scouting for locations, deciding on the locations, meeting with your first associate director; mine was Jennifer Truelove. She's one of my favorite people on the planet.

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