Ryan Murphy

“When I was starting out in Hollywood, everything was such a battle.”

“Originally, 'Popular' was going to be a movie.”

“The only way to get through the life I had was just to have a big head of steam and determination.”

“For me, growing up in Indiana with cornfields and churches, I was always very intrigued by the Academy Awards - they were a big event. That was the one night of the year when all of the glittering movie stars got together, and I used to love that night because, as a child, it was a way to dream for me.”

“With all of my work, it always takes a while for people to get it.”

“Well, I'm from Indiana. So to me when I was a little kid growing up, Cincinnati was the glamorous New York of it all.”

“I lean into fear because I feel like that excites me as an artist.”

“I've gotten death threats, yes. I have. I think anytime you shine a spotlight on homosexuality or minorities and you try and say they are as normal or as worthy as acceptance as others, the people who are on the fringe don't like that and they will come after you. And they have come after me.”

“I had been accepted to film school, but my parents couldn't afford it, and yet they made too much money for me to get a scholarship.”

“Yeah, at home it's all moonbeams and puppy-dog tails, so I guess I do have a darker side - and I like writing about it.”

“When I started, you couldn't do anything. A gay person trying to write a gay character in 1998 - it was so difficult.”

“I came of age during AIDS and the terror of that and the sadness and the death and the overwhelming despair.”

“One of the unique things about 'American Horror Story' is, it's very respectful to actors. Actors in many cases don't want to be tied down to a seven-year contract. So my deal with the cast is: you're free after every year: you can come back, or you cannot come back.”

“I started off in this business in 1998, and I didn't fit in. There was no place for me, and I always felt like an oddball. Nobody really understood my work or what I wanted to do in my references.”

“I believe most people don't go into show business unless they've been majorly unloved as a child.”

“I am not going to do anything unless I am afraid of it.”

“For me, the saddest thing in the world is always lost potential. That is always the most heartbreaking thing, when there's something left to be mined from a situation or a person that goes unexplored; that's a tragedy to me.”

“At the end of the day, a divorce is a divorce, and a break-up is a break-up. They are essentially small matters of the heart. They are human stories.”

“If you look at 'American Horror Story' or 'Crime Story,' these are visceral, action-packed, sometimes bloody episodes of television. They're not 'feminine.' They're not about sexy women sitting around looking beautiful, drinking lattes. These episodes are calling cards to show companies like Marvel, 'Look, women can do these kind of movies.'”

“Joan Crawford and Bette Davis are larger than life. They just are. They sucked all the oxygen out of a room: they're icons; they loom large in our imaginations. But the truth of the matter is both women were diminutive.”