I did grow up in New Orleans. I grew up right on the lake, right across the levee.

Labels don't really impress, it's the uniqueness and risk in decor that inspire.

You know, I think I was always intrigued by theater since I was a small child.

Until everyone is free, the experiment of America is not succeeding. We all want opportunity.

Did Anthony Hopkins really have to be a serial killer to be in 'Silence of the Lambs?,' I don't think so, no. It's called acting, people.

In the dining room, next to my collection of colorful papier-mache Mardi Gras float art, hang draperies made of the New Orleans toile fabric that I designed pre-Katrina for Hazelnut.

I am a collector of many things, but I particularly love the sterling silver mint julep cups, each engraved with the titles of the Broadway shows in which I appeared.

Put every light you have on a dimmer. Because after a certain age, we can play with the lighting and set it on how you look best on it. Its cheaper than plastic surgery.

I tend to wake up in the middle of the night with ideas crying to be documented.

It's funny... musical theater is what paid my rent and kept me going for the longest time.

We have a costume closet at home. My family will put on a costume for any excuse.

Just for the record: happiness is not bullshit.

Whatever the questions that trouble you just get up and ask, don't let them suffocate you. Because questions not asked will stay questions unanswered.

We are not self-caused little gods.

Finally, the scariest thing about abuse of any shape or form, is, in my opinion, not the abuse itself, but that if it continues it can begin to feel commonplace and eventually acceptable.

If YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING NICE TO SAY ABOUT ANYONE..COME SIT BY ME.

Maybe that's what Hell is. You go mad. And all your demons come and get you just as fast as you can think them up.

I need an irony punctuation mark for the clueless.

It is not society which is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse.

People forget that the church is bigger than China. It speaks more languages than the United Nations. It has more volunteers than all the NGOs in the world put together.

Nothing they design ever gets in the way of a work of art