Nathan Lane

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

“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.”

“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!'”

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

“What about Broadway? Yes, I'm involved with a new musical based on 'The Adams Family.'”

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

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

“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.”

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

“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?”

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

“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.”

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

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

“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!'”

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

“Not to sound too pessimistic, but I just don't see me having the film career that I maybe hoped for after 'The Birdcage.' I think people just didn't know what to do with me.”

“I got to do the movie, and people who enjoyed 'The Birdcage' came out to see me on stage when I did 'Forum.' It introduced me to a whole new audience that wasn't familiar with my stage work.”

“'The Producers' is a sort of a once in a lifetime kind of phenomenon, and I was grateful to be a part of it.”

“I am not a sad clown. I am not a sad clown.”