Quote

That straight man character is a short trip between comedy and drama in a project, so I can play the comedic beat on the same page as a dramatic beat. It gives me a lot of freedom as an actor to play scenes in multiple ways because I don't play the clown, nor do I play someone who is particularly maudlin.

People say: 'Why do you want to play the straight man?' Well, it's because he gets to be in every scene.

The straight man has the best part. He gets to be in the show and see it, too.

In the '50s and '60s, the life of a gay man was a secret. Homosexuality was illegal, so you didn't draw attention to yourself.

I think the least stereotypical gay character on television is probably Matt LeBlanc on 'Episodes.' He just plays it so straight-faced. They never talk about the fact that he's such a huge gay person.

I didn't want to be known as a gay comic, but as a comic who happens to be gay.

My dearest friend in the movement is Jack Nichols. If there were no such thing as gay or straight, we would still talk and share experiences till the end of time.

Gay writers now have both a sense of history and the fables that allows them to dwell in the realms of the ridiculous and at the same time talk seriously about things.

Gay life in 1970 was very bleak, compartmentalized. You didn't take it to work. You had to really lead a double life. There were bars, but you sort of snuck in and snuck out. Activism and gay pride simply didn't exist. I don't even think the word 'gay' was in existence.