Quotes from Rory O'Malley

With Irish drama, things are told with humor.

The key to doing eight shows a week is maintaining your energy. Getting as much sleep as possible and a big, healthy breakfast is the best way to make that happen. My mainstay is granola cereal, a banana, and soy milk. I also try to add a side of fresh fruit with yogurt and peanut butter toast.

I spent a lot of my time, growing up, at the Beck Center. I'd be in plays there, and I'd get there an hour or two early just so I could be there, where I felt safe and where I belonged. And that's such an important feeling to have as a young kid. The theater community, and especially the Beck Center, really embraced me and got me started.

I was eight when I played St. Joseph, and I told my mom from that moment on I wanted to be an actor.

I watched 'Downton Abbey' twice, and I'm thinking of watching it for a third time. It is so good!

Elder McKinley wants his homosexuality to be turned off. To be a perfect Mormon, he has to put his feelings away.

It's about being open to what comes your way. I came to New York and saw 'Spelling Bee.' I said to myself, 'That's the greatest show ever, and I can't believe I'm not a part of it.' I felt the only way I'm going to get to be a part of something that good is to live in New York. So I moved to New York and ended up in 'Spelling Bee.'

To watch Lin Manuel Miranda... you could not make a better spokesperson for Broadway in a laboratory.

'Hamilton' is a game-changer for the musical theater genre. It's moved the art form forward so much and redefined so many things about what we do in theater, so it's pretty hard to oversell it.

I love how passionate Elder McKinley is about his faith, but he's a perfectionist in a bad way... to the point he denies his true feelings. It's a common story, unfortunately.

I can't believe women walk around in stilettos. I would not make it two steps.

It's definitely a high when you walk onstage and everybody starts applauding before you even say anything.

The only way to get to that next peak is to be ready for that next valley. Being raised Irish, you know to always be ready for the bad times.

You can win your Oscar, and you still wake up trying to figure out how to get your next job.

After I graduated college, I moved to L.A. I started working for the Garry Marshall Theatre in Toluca Lake and did theater at the Hudson Theatre in Santa Monica. I paid my dues by working at every single restaurant in the Grove until they fired me. I worked an overnight shift at the Mondrian Hotel.

Los Angeles is where I became an actor.