Nathan Lane Quotes

I am not a sad clown. I am not a sad clown.

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

Sure I think it is healthy to speak the truth, and be who you are, and be proud of that.

Look, I'm over 40, I'm single, and I work in musical theater - you do the math!

Take a shot of vodka and hope for the best.

People think they know who I am, because I've played so many very, very out gay men on stage, and they think that's me

I have to accept the fact that, no matter what I do, it's going to annoy someone.

I'm one of those old-fashioned homosexuals, not one of the newfangled ones who are born joining parades.

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

Hollywood... Real diamonds, fake breasts.

There are some people that the press like to pick on and not just the gay press, but the press in general. And some people, the press just doesn't care about at all

I have my aluminum siding business, and that's going like a house afire.

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!'

A sitcom is the closest thing for me to doing stage because you work in front of an audience, and if it's well written it can be very satisfying.

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

He's so interesting because you think you know Dennis Hopper, but you don't really know Dennis Hopper. I don't really know Dennis Hopper, I just know him from the silver screen.

I was born Joseph Lane, but when I applied to the actors union, they said they already had a Joe Lane on the books and I'd have to change my last or first name. I had played the character of Nathan Detroit, whom I liked very much, in 'Guys and Dolls,' so I took the name Nathan.

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

The more competition, the better. I hope to get snubbed again this year.

I never like seeing myself on screen.

As a kid, I loved Godot because of the poetry and the humor and the strangeness, but then as you get older, its 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!'

I dont know why everybody is giving Prince Harry a hard time. Hes like every other red-blooded American man - he wants to get drunk and go out with hookers.

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

There doesn't seem to be a lot of middle ground with me.

If you've seen Mary Poppins and The Grinch, come to the Booth Theater and let me shove a little coal down your stocking.

My oldest brother used to take me to the theater. The first play he took me to see was 'Black Comedy,' then he took me to see 'Butley.' We'd see all these British plays. And 'Hello, Dolly,' with Pearl Bailey. I was unconsciously thinking, 'Gee, I would love to be able to do that.'

My mom was Jewish, so some would call me Jewish.

The reason I was in most of the movies I've done is that they paid for me to be in the theater.

There's a freedom there and an understanding of my career and the things I've done. I'm seen here as primarily a comic actor, which is OK, but I can go to New York and I do something that's very emotional. It would be lovely at some point to do something like that on film.

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

But in order for anyone to become successful, sometimes you have to be that driven and focused, and maybe there isn't a lot left over for personal relationships - although I certainly have had them. It's not as if I cut myself off, but it makes them very difficult. This profession is very hard on relationships.

Kevin Costner. I love Kevin Costner. That's all I have to say. I love Kevin Costner.

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

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

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

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.

I'll always go back to the stage.

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.