Don’t forget who your heroes are, what they mean to you, and why they mean that to you.

My interests are not really with television, per se.

Some say that Jesus is the rock, or the anchor. I say that your friends and family are your anchor. And you can really hold their hands, not just sing about it. No disrespect to George Jones.

I’m straight, but the character was too important to me to muddle his world with my private life. As a nobody, I got away with that deflection. I think it may have helped to introduce Brian as a believable gay man. Maybe not. However it played, it’s been out of my hands for a long time.

You have to like your character, because if you don’t, no one else will either.

I’ve learned the most from Randy Harrison. Because of his fantastic imaginary world filled with bizarre friends. He is constantly giving us good advice.

I started studying at 26. Before that, I never thought of acting as something that I would ever try.

You are preparing yourself for a scene, and the most important thing is to remain emotionally available and remain in the moment with your scene partner. You don’t want to let your own self-consciousness block the flow of creativity that’s coming out so that you can act and react, and play what the scene is all about.

I want to keep developing. I want to become relaxed in my own work and go deeper. Just growing and studying and trying new things and hopefully having professional access to work that’s good and interesting. I don’t want to be on the treadmill of artificiality.

If someone doesn’t want to work with me because I’m playing a gay character, I don’t want to work with them. They can fck off.

I’m a bad interview because I want to always feel like I’m being totally honest, but at the same time, I’m absolutely paranoid. That combination results in a lot of spaces.

My first manager, Suzanne DeWalt, saw a play I was in. She was invited by the director Joan Scheckel, who was my first real acting teacher. Joan was also good friends with my friend Susie Landau Finch, who had first encouraged me to consider acting, so that’s how I began studying.