Patti LuPone

The word diva to me means doing something supernatural with something natural.

All my career, I've said this: Critics and producers think audiences want actors that only present the silhouette and hit the points in the silhouette. What I do is too dangerous.

A show is exhausting when it stinks. It's exhausting when you have to work overtime to make something work.

In America, it stands out, because it's raw, it's big, it's emotional. My face is raw, big and emotional. It didn't work for the longest time.

I don't listen to the contemporary pop artists. They all sound alike, anyway.

I knew when I was a kid that I had a Broadway voice. I wanted to be a rocker, because I grew up in that era of transistor radios at the beach.

I know what it means to have a leading part, and I know what it means to have a featured part.

I learned a long time ago from David Mamet to wipe your feet at the door, get it out on stage and then go about your life.

The only thing we are as actors are messengers. That's all we are. Correct? We are delivering the playwright's intention through the concept of the director. And I come on stage; if I feel confident in the role, then I give it away.

I played the tuba in high school. I wanted to be a member of the marching band. I thought, what can I play that has the most effect? What can I play to get people to laugh?

I think Madonna is a wonderful performer.

It's exhausting when you have to work overtime to make something work.

We're not show-business people. We have a life.

A well-rounded performer will listen to all kinds of music. I like classical, Middle Eastern, and rock a lot.

I just love chickens.

I'll tell you what I think in general about people who want to make their Broadway debut that are not trained stage actors. Don't they know, Broadway ain't for sissies? It is a tough gig. You are responsible, physically, mentally, emotionally, for eight shows a week, at the top of your game. It's not easy.

To be nominated was enough, but when I won I the Tony I just felt relief.

I'd love to do situation comedy - it's the best job in show business.

Smile at a stranger. See what happens.

My favorite band was The Band, and nobody compares in my mind with The Band.

I just create, that's what I do.

I'm totally Italian, but I'm not a diva. If you could see the way I'm dressed in daily life, that's not a diva. Appearances are so not important to me.

I am in musical theatre, but it isn't necessarily what I listen to in my leisure time, do you know what I mean?

The theater is a tough place. It's not cushioned the way it is in film and television.

I love what I do, and I love the audience, and I love the fact that I get to do it, and I love, I love our craft very, very, much, and it's a noble craft. We have a responsibility to it, and to the audience, and to the playwright, and to the message. I won't ever care less.

Anybody that goes to the theater, I think we're all misfits, so we ended up on stage or in the audience.

I think that Stevie Nicks is one of the greats. Steve Nicks and Grace Slick and Janis Joplin have the real rock voices, to me.