Top 60 Jane Lynch Quotes

I’ve been in Chicago for every Christmas of my life.

Once you start classifying and trying to identify your own comedy style, you’ve ceased to be funny.

There I was as a kid: a closeted homosexual who wants to be an actress. I had no choice! Wanting to act was something I was wired with when I was born. I never thought I would have success or celebrity, although I did want that. But what I wanted more than anything was to work.

I don’t have to talk to a surgeon to play a surgeon, you know what I mean?

I do like to go to movies. I like to be in the theater. I like the event of it.

I’ve actually never done standup before.

I never thought I would work with Meryl Streep. I also love Cate Blanchett.

I’m an actor more than anything else.

I like for Sue Sylvester to be firing on all cylinders.

Everybody has their own way to deal with it. I don’t concern myself with other people’s – whether or not they want to come out, it’s not something for me think about.

I didn’t want to be gay. I wanted to be… I wanted an easy life. And you know what? I am gay, and I still have an easy life.

No one’s just going to hand you a career. I waited for years for someone to hand me one and it never happened.

When you raise your voice in song to express what’s going on deep inside of you, I think people just react to that because it’s so truthful. It’s so raw.

I didn’t have a coming out moment.

You know ‘Ninotchka?’ I recommend it. It’s kind of a mess, too. It was before, you know, we got slick editing tools, so it kind of chops along.

I do feel that softness for the vulnerability and the innocence in our world, including my own.

When you get out of school, you just go where the wind blows: Here’s an audition; there’s an audition. And before you know it, you’re where you’re supposed to be. And that was Second City.

I go to coffee shops for my outlet. Which is just not healthy at all.

I looked at my mom and her life, and I thought, ‘I don’t want that.’ I don’t think my mom wanted it, either. I think my mom did want to be out there and have a career. She loved working. As soon as we were old enough to feed ourselves, she was out.

It has to come from a truthful place in order to be funny.

Charlie Sheen was such a pro.

‘Zoolander.’ Yeah, I mean, I love Ben Stiller; he’s just a brilliant guy. And I love Will Ferrell in it, too. His character, to me, is just insane, and he made such huge choices, and he’s such a weirdo!

There’s this weird kind of coming-in-from-left-field thing going on, and I love it – I am a huge fan of Christopher Durang.

I think a little tidbit I can give you is that I grew up with basically everything handed to me, except for my career. I worked for that.

I’m a character actress, and my particular brand is more mature, so I had to wait until my age caught up with the tricks in my little arsenal.

I’ve never been a cheerleader. It’s so outside of my range of things I could ever do.

I watch very selective television. I watch ‘Mad Men,’ and I usually watch a season at a time.

I think that network TV is going to either have to reinvent itself or it’s going to have to be more competitive – there are just so many options now with streaming and everything.

I’d drop whatever I was doing to show up to do the graveyard shift of ‘America’s Shopping Place.’

My first-ever role was the king in ‘The Princess and the Pea.’

When I was a young person, when I was in high school, we did a very emotional and wonderful – for us, life-changing – production of ‘Godspell.’ It really, really was the highlight of my high school time, and it was for everybody else in the cast, too.

I’m not out to conquer anything, which I think is a good thing. That’s why I also think crazy, different things come my way. I really don’t have an agenda, and I’m really happy not to have one. I’m just keeping it light.

Television is really fertile ground, and it’s because of platforms like Netflix and Hulu and, of course, the cable channels like HBO and Showtime.

In Chicago, actors start up companies and get together and produce things, and there’s a really rich, vibrant non-Equity theater scene out there.

I can be kind of razor sharp in my disapproval.

I have a big family. Even though it’s only three kids in our family, it’s always aunts and uncles and the whole thing.

I love Matt LeBlanc in ‘Episodes’ – he’s very good. And the ‘Modern Family’ cast just cracks me up.

There’s nothing better than voicing a character. You don’t have to worry about what you’re wearing; you’ve got the script in front of you, and it doesn’t involve your body: it’s all about your voice, and it’s really fast work.

I’m fascinated by Greta Garbo. My cat’s named Greta, and I have a framed photograph of her from 1949.

When I was younger, I actually wanted to be in the spotlight. To have people want me, want to have a piece of me.

I never went through a biological clock experience. I never even heard it ticking.

It’s so amazing that you can give somebody like David Fincher ‘House of Cards,’ and he can do whatever he wants – Netflix doesn’t say, ‘Oh, you can’t do that,’ or, ‘We need a subplot here about this.’ It’s pretty neat that it is allowing the creatives to be creative.

I did voice work for many years before I started having success as an actress. It was mostly radio and television voiceover work, but I know my way around the studio. I know how to use the cappuccino machines and the headphones.

I’m like Jay Gatsby. I like to throw the party and then stand back, looking gorgeous. Stand back and watch it.

I think humor is such a personal thing, and you put a microphone in somebody’s face, they’re going to say something that offends somebody.

I could be pretty volatile, especially when I didn’t feel understood, which was 99 percent of the time. I do think that, as a young person, I suffered over that. But as I look back, it doesn’t even feel like part of me – except when I act and need those emotions. Then I can dredge it up.

I’m a person who likes habit and knowing what my job is.

I had friendships with two people in my life who, when I attempted to do my habitual behavior of building a case to break up with them, wouldn’t allow me to do it. They both said to me, ‘I’m not going anywhere.’ And that moved me so deeply.

When I look back, I think I must have been hugely motivated. I would have loved for somebody to say, ‘You go for it!’ I just didn’t have that.

My parents felt judged by me.

I’ve just always loved singing, and I come from a family that loves singing around the kitchen table.

I would love to do the therapist on ‘Two and a Half Men’ again or just work with Charlie Sheen.

I loved working with Cybill Shepherd. We had a good time together; we enjoyed being girlfriends. It was a real comfortable fit for us. I loved putting on a suit and tie.

I love being the villain.

That weird dark energy – when I was a kid, I didn’t know what it was. I just had to ‘thrash it out,’ as my mother called it. I became quite intolerable, creatively and artistically, with other people. I wanted nothing more than to be part of a group, and yet I couldn’t help alienating people.

It’s always a good idea to go up for the male roles. You go up against a bunch of beefy guys, and the casting director then feels smart for taking you on, like he’s the one who thought outside the box.

We’re all conditioned to think we have to get to the top and be the best.

The funniest people are usually the best actors, I believe.

There are still parts of the country where it’s hard: when you realize you’re gay, it’s like a death sentence.

I love Jennifer Saunders, the ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ creator.