Nathan Lane Quotations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's certainly not a shock to find that the industry has no imagination. I think people don't know what it is I do. Because half the time you're talking to people who are in their 20s, and I've been doing this for over 25 years.

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!'

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!'

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Relationships, for me, have been elusive. And I would say mostly it's been my fault. I was always more concentrated on my career. And yes, you do question people's motives. Is it just because I'm him - I'm Nathan Lane?

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

It's a cliche, but there really is no handbook about the celebrity thing; you have to figure it out as you go along

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

All I can do is try to create the best show possible, and I feel we've truly done that.

I didn't know Charlie before doing the movie, but I was a huge fan of the British Queer as Folk.

Yes, it's throbbing, ... And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

On a personal level, I don't immediately open up to anybody, even about what colours I like, much less something like this. I am my mother, OK?

I got to do the movie, and people who enjoyed 'The Birdcage' came out to see me on stage when I did 'Forum.' It introduced me to a whole new audience that wasn't familiar with my stage work.

The thing that everyone remembers about 'Bambi' is that moment. 'The Lion King,' took it to quite an extreme because it was an action sequence: his father was killed in a wildebeest stampede - I related, because mine was, too.

Run! When she wrote about me, I was the clown who cried, and you'll be the costumer who cried. 'Oh, poor William! Fourteen houses and no boyfriend!

It's hard to top this. There is no bigger deal in jazz.

They came to see that family need not be defined merely as those with whom they share blood but for those for whom they would give their blood.

I'm not going to wear this in the show, ... Have you met my finger puppet Melvin?

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

I'll always go back to the stage.

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.'

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

I never like seeing myself on screen.

Take a shot of vodka and hope for the best.

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

Hollywood... Real diamonds, fake breasts.

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

All that stuff was fun, but I'm glad we didn't rethink the show. It is what it is, a throwback that isn't like anything else out there. It has that deliberate, artificial feel to it. It's something from the soundstage era. People haven't seen that for a while, so it seems fresh. It came along at the right time.