Quotes from Audra McDonald

Parenthood is an adventure.

The arts are so important not only to society but to ourselves as human beings. It keeps in touch with our own humanity. So access to the arts in any way, shape, or form is vital.

Some days, I don't recognise my country, and other days, I see people being vocal and passionate, and I think, 'There's my country.'

I don't see myself as a perfectionist.

I auditioned for Julliard because I wanted to live in New York, and I wanted to be on Broadway at the time. Julliard seemed like right way to get there.

When I wanted to audition for a dinner-theater junior troupe in my hometown, I needed to have a piece of musical theater music to sing. I wasn't sure what I wanted to use. My mom and dad suggested that I sing 'Edelweiss' because I knew it from the music box.

When I was doing 'A Raisin in the Sun' with Sean Combs, we began in bed, and he would give me 10 kisses and an 11th for luck before the play began.

I choose things that challenge me. I was afraid of the camera - that's why I chose to do 'Private Practice.' It's not like I left the theater.

I was a little girl with a pot belly and Afro puffs, hyperactive and overdramatic, and I found the theater and I found my home.

I am always so excited to get to know a new audience. My concerts are very personal experiences.

When you become a parent, it blows you open in ways that you never thought possible in terms of a level of love that I know I never thought I could possibly have.

Not to get too sort of mystical, but I believe in fate. I believe when roles are presented to me in my life they're for a very specific reason, something for me to learn.

I came from a really musical family. I studied classical piano because my grandparents were piano teachers, but started doing musical theater at age nine in Fresno, California, and went to a performing arts high school. That was my life.

I believe in not whistling backstage and not saying the name of the Scottish play.

The only thing I've ever wanted to do in my entire life is to be on Broadway.

I used to think I needed to have drama at all times, or I wouldn't have the fuel for the performance. Now I know that's not true. That doesn't mean I don't feel it, but I recognize it when I do and put the brakes on. And if the performance isn't what it might have been once, I've learned not to judge myself as much.

I think for a lot of people that are in performing arts, it's easy to fall into the trap of starting to confuse what's real life and what's not, because to your body it's all real.

All you can do is do good work, and do the good work for the sake of doing the good work and your evolution as an artist. That's what's most important to me.

I certainly miss playing piano, and I really wish I did it more - it's really a very therapeutic thing to do for me. I just need to be home for more than a few minutes to be able to play more, I guess.

It's easy to spend - especially in this day and age - to spend your time not being in the present. It's very easy to be way ahead. What's tomorrow and the day after that?

There's no perfect household anywhere.

I admire but don't envy people who have children and also have big, wonderful perfect houses. Maybe Martha Stewart could do it; to me those two things aren't compatible, but I know our children will grow up with a feeling that home is a place of comfort.

'Go Back Home' encompasses not only actual geographic location but also, for me, back home in the worlds of music and theatre, and back home in terms of making albums again. There are lots of meanings to that.

I used to practice Tony speeches in my bathroom with my hairbrush.