Carmen Cusack

“I didn't know I was going to go into musical theater necessarily. It was never planned. I just kind of fell into it because I knew I wanted to act, and yet I had this opera training... I knew I had a voice.”

“My mother had me when she was 16, and that was an issue that had to be dealt with. She grew up in a very religious background, and there was a lot of discussion of what they should do with this unborn child. But here I am, and thank goodness.”

“Show biz! It's definitely not for sissies.”

“We all have to go through our own experiences of growing up.”

“It's hard for some parents to give their children compliments.”

“I was worried that my voice would struggle with talking nonstop every night, but it's been fine.”

“I wasn't ready for 'Bright Star' to end when it did.”

“We had to grow up very fast. There never was a day when there wasn't shouting about the bills.”

“I got married way too young.”

“It's nice to be able to go do what I love and come home - and get in my own bed.”

“To be honest with you, most of the time the ingenue roles are a little bit dull and boring, in my opinion.”

“You have to laugh through hard things, right? How else do you cope?”

“I like my cheese, I like my milk in my coffee, and nobody's gonna tell me any different.”

“I think I've gotten to the point in my life where I have to do everything that I'm scared of because you're not going to learn anything if you don't, so you just have to dive in the deep end and see if you can swim.”

“'Wicked' is so hard-core, physically and mentally, for the whole three hours, that doing that show for two years has pretty much prepared me for anything.”

“The first music that came to my ear was gospel... I used to sing 'Amazing Grace' with a very strong southern accent and a vibrato already at five years old.”