Sean Hayes

The smartest thing that an actor can do is embrace the thing that made them famous as opposed to run away from it or deny that it happened. That does a disservice to most actors. To me, it looks like you're ungrateful.

I don't think comedy necessarily comes from a dark place. But I do think what a lot of us have in common is that, growing up, being funny was a coping mechanism.

This isn't a dig on journalists, but people like to write about the 'death of blank.' The death of something.

I listened to George Carlin when I was a kid and knew every word of his routines.

We learn our lessons only when we are ready.

I think the worst thing you could ever do is label comedy. I'm a fan of the broadness of Lucille Ball, the subtlety of Peter Sellers and the oddballness of Fred Armisen and the wittiness of Marty Short. I'm a fan of all of it, and I want to do all of it.

I'm so boring and grounded, and I like quiet, and I like structure, and I like goals. I couldn't be more opposite from Jack McFarland.

I love showing people that I wasn't that guy, the guy in 'Will & Grace.'

I like common sense, to try and be the voice of reason at work.

I had so many friends over the years - so many, out of the woodwork, telling me, 'When are you coming back to TV?'

I had all the Bill Cosby albums. 'To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With' - I knew every word.

I was buttoned up as a kid. I did what I was told and never broke the rules.

When you don't have an interruption, there's a flow, so it's easier to memorize. Monologues are easier to memorize than dialogue.

You power through it word by word, line by line.

It's always comedy first on 'Will and Grace.' There was never any other agenda.

My job was to play my character in the best way that I could, and hopefully people will enjoy that.

I want to make people laugh first, and that's it.

I am who I am. I was never 'in,' as they say. Never.

I didn't want the responsibility, I didn't know how to handle the responsibility of speaking for the gay community. I always felt like I owed them a huge apology for coming out too late.

I felt so much pressure to come out on other people's terms, you know? I should have come out.

I grew up; I had a couple of dogs.

I knew 'Promises,' and I knew 'Never Fall In Love Again,' only from the radio, from being a kid; and of course, that 'House is Not a Home' and 'Say A Little Prayer.'

Isn't it about getting out of your comfort zone and getting off the couch and challenging yourself and forcing yourself to do things you wouldn't other do? Otherwise, what are you living for?

I'm definitely an actor first, but it's fun to kind of, you know, push your boundaries and see if you can do things that have scared you a little bit your whole life.

I was a piano major with Craig Robinson from 'The Office.' Me and Craig were very close in college at Illinois State University... It's so bizarre to see us out here now doing things.

I never felt like I could be myself at home.

There weren't any funny people in sports or the Spanish club. All the really creative, witty, funny people that made your belly hurt were in the theater program.

Everybody has a different definition of God. When people say, 'Do you believe?' I think they mean the Christian God. There are a lot of gods, so I think they cancel each other out.

NBC programs great shows; it just doesn't have the eyeballs CBS does.

We had a cat in college named Chloe, and it was the most evil, awful cat in the world... When we left, we used to close the door, and its paw would come underneath and try to paw us.

I felt like I couldn't fully be myself and accepted in my family, so I would lock myself in my room on a Saturday night and watch 'Saturday Night Live,' and that was, like, the best thing that ever happened to me.

I'm a hamster person.

I consider myself an actor who is funny.

I tried do stand-up, and I was horrible. And I'll never do it again.

When you see me play Jack, I want you to believe that that's a gay character.

I'm consumed with what I didn't do. I know I should've come out sooner, and I'm sorry for that.

Some people in the gay community were very upset with me for not coming out on their terms.

I spend time with a special someone in my life. That's all I need; I don't need events. I don't do a lot.

I'm just quiet. It's fantastic.

I live my life like an 85-year-old man.

But when I did think about it and looked at the whole package - the producers behind the show, the writers, the cast I would be working with - I would have been a fool to turn it down just because the role for me was another gay role.

And I'm OK being judged as an actor.

I'm a huge sci-fi/fantasy/horror guy. I love anything in the sci-fi or fantasy genre.

I like to be busy and I like to have places to go in the morning, when I get up.

The thing about producing is that the pressure is off of being in front of the camera, and being critiqued and judged in that way, but there are other pressures producing.

No, my entire life is planned. It's called time management.

Being an actor, the less people know about my personal life, the more open-minded they can be about each role I play.

The writers have slowly taken the show, with subjects other gay shows have dived right into, slowly. It was over a year before Will even started to date.

They might have a long way to go before truly accepting gay people into their lives, but they have accepted the show into their living rooms each and every week.

No one could have ever dreamed about how well the show would do.