People think they know who I am, because I've played so many very, very out gay men on stage, and they think that's me.

Sure I think it is healthy to speak the truth, and be who you are, and be proud of that.

People have to do things in their own time, and that's what I did.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of middle ground with me.

I am not a sad clown. I am not a sad clown.

There are some people that the press like to pick on and not just the gay press, but the press in general. And some people, the press just doesn't care about at all.

I'm still the fat kid from high school who never had a date.

It's a cliche, but there really is no handbook about the celebrity thing; you have to figure it out as you go along.

I seem to always inspire a strong reaction one way or the other.

I'm one of those old-fashioned homosexuals, not one of the newfangled ones who are born joining parades.

People think they know who I am, because I've played so many very, very out gay men on stage, and they think that's me.

I didn't know Charlie before doing the movie, but I was a huge fan of the British Queer as Folk.

People always think I'm Jewish and changed my last name from Rabinowitz.

All I can do is try to create the best show possible, and I feel we've truly done that.

Look, I'm 40, I'm single, and I work in musical theater - you do the math!

A video taped stage performance is just - you know, it's never gonna be the same as it is if you're sitting there live in the theatre.

As a kid, I loved 'Godot' because of the poetry and the humor and the strangeness, but then as you get older, it's much more resonant.

I don't know what goes on in their heads out in Hollywood.

I have my aluminum siding business, and that's going like a house afire.

I have to accept the fact that, no matter what I do, it's going to annoy someone.

I want the kind of career where I can move back and forth.

I'm really an honorary Jew, you know; all the best people are. I really do feel Jewish, even though I'm a Catholic. The way the Church has been behaving, I'm happy to be Jewish.

It's certainly not a shock to find that the industry has no imagination. I think people don't know what it is I do. Because half the time you're talking to people who are in their 20s, and I've been doing this for over 25 years.

My mom was Jewish, so some would call me Jewish.

One of the nicest compliments I would get very often on the street is people would say, 'I love you on 'The Good Wife.' I just can't tell whether I should like you or hate you!'

Relationships, for me, have been elusive. And I would say mostly it's been my fault. I was always more concentrated on my career. And yes, you do question people's motives. Is it just because I'm him - I'm Nathan Lane?

There's not a day in my life I'm not proud of being gay, but I just wasn't ready for that attention to be placed on it. I remember being on Oprah. Well, not on Oprah. Near Oprah. She started saying, 'Now, Nathan, you got all those girlie moves going down in 'The Birdcage,' where's all that coming from? You're so good at all that girlie stuff!'

My cousins gay, he went to London only to find out that Big Ben was a clock.

I don't know of many evangelicals who want to deny gay couples their legal rights. However, most of us don't want to call it marriage, because we think that word has religious connotations, and we're not ready to see it used in ways that offend us.

The media seems to think only abortion and gay marriage are religious issues. Poverty is a moral issue, it's a faith issue, it's a religious issue.

I think the fact that I'm so well known to be gay makes it very difficult to have a convincing relationship with a woman on screen. It wouldn't be at all difficult for me to kiss a woman - I'll kiss a frog if you like.

I think my election is one of several indications that gay and lesbian folk are being brought more into the center of things. I'd like to think that my election signals my bringing of gay and lesbian folk into the center of the church.

I believe very firmly that gay people of every stripe and age should be role models for all children, and that means interacting with them.

In the case of my book, I don't think it's really the coming-out gay novel that everyone really needed, even though it was received as such. The boy is too creepy, he betrays his teacher, the only adult man with whom he's enjoyed a sexual experience, etc.

My mom doesn't get the whole gay thing, but she loves me.

When I first started editing GQ, it gave the impression of being, and in fact was, a gay magazine. There were female models in it and there were women on the cover, but the boys were always much, much more beautiful than the girls.

I was against gay marriage until I realized I didn't have to get one.

I was raised around heterosexuals, as all heterosexuals are, that's where us gay people come from... you heterosexuals.

I do not support a constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage.

We must make it clear that a platform of 'I hate gay men and women' is not a way to become president of the United States.

You know, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender - people are people.

There are enormously gifted Episcopal priests around this church who are gay and lesbian, some of whom are partnered, who would make wonderful bishops and they're going to be nominated and they're going to be elected.

Straight people say, 'You know you're just gay,' and gay people say, 'You know you're just gay.' There is such a thing as bisexual!

In my career, there have been three things that were challenging: playing gay; playing a Jewish woman; and playing Chekhov. The scariest part was playing Chekhov!

And I used to go the punk clubs such as a gay club in Poland Street that everyone would go to because it was the only place you could go to looking like that without getting beaten senseless.

And I'm in favor of that because I have a gay son, who's a very successful theater designer.

It was a pleasure to be a gay eyesore.

There's nothing wrong with being gay. I have plenty of friends who are going to hell.

Another argument, vaguer and even less persuasive, is that gay marriage somehow does harm to heterosexual marriage. I have yet to meet anyone who can explain to me what this means. In what way would allowing same-sex partners to marry diminish the marriages of heterosexual couples?