I have to be asked, I guess, but I love the idea of marriage. I think it's beautiful. I'm such a romantic, and I always have been.

I thought, I'm out in my life, that doesn't involve my public life.

My sexuality is a part of me that I really like. But it's not the totality of me.

We must be able to inspire. That's my goal in acting.

I don't even like watching sex scenes in movies. I have a slight prudish side to me.

When I watched Ellen come out in '97, my jaw was on the floor. I thought, There are some people who break the doors down, hold them open, and some people who walk right through.

If I was 14 and knew some gay people, I wouldn't nearly have had the struggle I had. Our world is definitely changing.

You live with the fear people might find out. Then you actually have the courage to tell people and they go, I don't think you are gay. It's enough to drive you crazy.

I really never stopped thinking about Ellen, because I just haven't felt that kind of energy with anyone in my life.

I have to be asked, I guess, but I love the idea of marriage. I think it's beautiful. I'm such a romantic, and I always have been.

It sounds so trite, but my private life is mine.

I've had so many interviews where the last question is, Are you gay? I had to find very creative ways to say that I was gay, but that I wasn't going to talk about it.

I married him for a green card. We had a really great, caring relationship; it just obviously wasn't right for me.

I ran into Ellen at a photo shoot. She took my breath away. That had never happened to me in my life.

When I was 15, I changed my name legally. I think it was largely due to my struggle about being gay. Everything just didn't fit, and I was trying to find things I could identify myself with, and it started with my name.

My feelings for Ellen overrode all of my fear about being out as a lesbian. I had to be with her, and I just figured I'd deal with the other stuff later.

I knew that I was gay, I knew it. I just couldn't see myself as a gay woman, even though that's where my heart was.

The most important thing for me was to never, ever, ever deny it. But I didn't really have the courage to talk about it. I was thinking, The people who need to know I'm gay know.

I had a hell of a time convincing people I was gay - which was so annoying!

People might find me attractive, but it's also my job to prove that I can be intelligent.

I saw Ellen and my knees were weak. It was amazing. And it was very hard for me to get her out of my mind after that. Then when I saw her that night, we started talking, and that's that.

I want to exude strength and intelligence.

Supermodels are over, and the new picture girl has become the television actress.

In high school I had sex with girls quite a few times. They were straight women who I convinced to jump in the sack with me.

I try to be feminine, yet intellectual and smart at the same time. You don't see enough of that.

I want young people to see me and think you can be feminine and smart and successful, all at the same time.

I was very sexual from a very young age.

I did a lot of fast talking as a youth; I was pretty good at it. I was never talked into it - I was always the one doing the talking.

I didn't choose the fact that I was gay, but I did choose whether to live my life as a gay woman-that was the terrifying thing for me. Especially being a gay actress.

I stumbled into acting and just loved it. I deferred law school-and I'm still deferred.

When I was anorexic it just seemed like I literally wanted to disappear. And now I would like to reappear.

I love being able to wear dresses and clothes that make me feel feminine and beautiful, and I love the fact that I don't have to all the time; I can wear a tank and jeans.

Everyone is their own kind of lesbian. To think there's a certain way to dress or present yourself in the world is just one more stereotype we have to fit into.

I justified it in so many ways. I had a very, very long and difficult struggle with my sexuality.

When you have the paparazzi hiding in the bushes outside your home, the only thing you can control is how you respond publicly.

Just look at all the awards shows now. It has turned into a catwalk. You have to be wearing a certain designer, a certain dress, and everyone's critiquing.

I'm living by example by continuing on with my career and having a full, rich life, and I am incidentally gay.

If you've looked at all the glamour magazines lately, all the covers are actresses. If they are on those covers, they are going to try to emulate models. That's just the way it is.

Most important, in order to find real happiness, you must learn to love yourself for the totality of who you are and not just what you look like.

This ring means that I choose to spend the rest of my life with you. I promise to love you in the nurturing and selfless way that you love me. I've changed so much since I've known you. Your love has given me the strength to be softer. You've taught me kindness and compassion. You make me better.

I became hooked on the idea of being able to shoot an image and process it myself, and end up with a product.

After I'd produced about two dozen pen and ink drawings, one evening I decided that they needed poems to accompany them. I still have no idea where that notion came from, but it took me about two hours to produce verses for these creatures.

Yeah, that's what kind of, we get the idea a little bit yeah, because other people from different countries also try as hard as they can to get a medal or a gold medal in the Olympic Games. And you know, if they can work hard, we can work hard as well.

What's fascinating is that when you write a script, it's almost a stream of consciousness. You have an idea that it means something, but you're not always sure what. Then when you get on the set, the actors teach you.

I also do not like the idea of soft money, these issue ads - people don't know where the money is coming from, millions and millions of dollars outside of the control of a candidate - there's no accountability.

From the beginning, the series has been story driven - I began with a story idea - but research feeds it.

Then I decided I couldn't just crawl in the corner and die, so I started putting pen to paper and wrote some songs. I had no idea what for or who I was going to work with. I tried to find my way and direction.

The idea is, if I can't heal from my art, then how can you heal?

There is sometimes a peculiar confusion in the West that equates progress to whatever is recent or whatever is new, and it is time we understood that progress has nothing to do with the chronology of an idea.