Quotes from Rory O'Malley

Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence are such legends.

I have a picture on my phone of me and Audra McDonald from when I went stage door-ing at 'Ragtime' in high school. I always keep it there because I try to remember how important that was to me.

You need to be happy with or without an acting job.

You put me in the room with my family and everyone I grew up with, and I'd be the last person that you'd say is the performer.

I played Sky Masterson in 'Guys and Dolls' at St. Ignatius. I walked out onstage at one point looking for Nathan Detroit, and I'm supposed to say, 'Has anyone seen Nathan Detroit?' But, instead, I said, 'Has anyone seen Sky Masterson?' I immediately realized what I'd done, so I said, 'Wait a minute. I'm Sky Masterson!'

There are a lot of other work forces that don't do things the way the Broadway community does.

The 'Cheers' family seemed like my family.

Growing up in bars might sound like child abuse. And if it does, then you're what my mom would call 'Protestants.'

You can't waste time in your life trying to hide the truth.

We cannot give up on working toward that more perfect union.

Mom was a single mother. So three aunts and three uncles and all of mom's friends pitched in as weekend warriors.

As someone who was once in the closet, I can tell you it is the most sad, dark, awful, depressing place to ever be.

It's profound to watch a little African-American girl light up when she raps as George Washington and she realizes that Washington's story is her story. That this history belongs to all of us.

Pub life was such a huge part of growing up for me, going to pubs and being around them. It made me who I am today.

Irish music in the local pubs was my first exposure to musical expression, and I feel like Irish music is very close to musical theater because it is always telling a story.

I'm an actor first and foremost. But I've also started an organization, Broadway Impact, that advocates for marriage equality. I'm an actorvist.

When I came out, I thought coming out meant giving up a marriage and a family. That was, to me, the most difficult part of the coming-out process.

I always thought I would move to New York after graduation, but, instead, I moved to Los Angeles. I realized I was more scared of that choice than I was of New York, and I thought, at 22, I should get it over with.

I obsessively listened to all of James Lapine's shows as a child growing up in Cleveland and had every cast recording and every VHS tape of 'Into the Woods' and everything that James had done that I could get my hands on.

I loved 'Les Miz' and 'Into the Woods' - I used to cast 'Into the Woods' with my friends, even if they'd never stepped on stage before.

Being a kid and growing up in Cleveland, the Tonys were how you saw Broadway shows: you got to hear from each show, and that's what inspired me to live my dream, so the fact that I am getting recognition from them, it's mind-blowing.

Every actor who's been around long enough knows that when something bad happens in this business, it's always for a reason. Really, the hardest part is waiting to find out what the reason is.

As a kid, I had nightmares about Freddy Krueger just from the trailers on TV!

My mom was a single mother. She had six siblings in a big Irish family, all descended from shanty Irish folks who arrived after the Famine. They settled along the Cuyahoga River. It's the river that caught on fire. We're real good at picking real estate.