Annaleigh Ashford

I dreamed my whole life of New York being my home.

We don't often talk about the quarter-life crisis, but it is a real thing.

I think no matter what you are going to pursue, if you pursue it like it's the most important thing, then everything else will be lost. And at the end of the day, when it's time to evaluate the path that you chose for your life, there has to be something more.

I'll be, like, grocery shopping or doing something totally mundane, and once a day, you'll hear a Cyndi Lauper song on the radio. It is astounding what an icon she is, not just in popular music but in popular culture.

In the comedy world, there's always been one woman to five men. I think that's changing, that we're being respected more as writers and comedians.

Greg Grunberg is so beautiful and charming and funny and heartbreaking.

You have to be so honest in comedy.

The people I see be the most successful are the people who have an inner confidence and an inner strength that comes from the character they display away from the stage and from what their parents taught them.

I love finding ways to make familiar characters into someone unique.

I feel that since I was a little, little person, I knew that one of my life goals was to tell stories and bring joy to people.

I always try to have a positive and warm intention that is not about me. It is easy to make everything about yourself. But you take the weight off when we make it about the audience. It's about the joy you can bring to somebody else instead of the joy that you get from doing it.

We actually found some home videos, some really funny footage of me when I was around 3 years old. I come up to the camera to do a Nixon impression. I don't know who taught me that, but I come up to the camera and said, 'I am not a crook.' I got a really good laugh. You see me register that bringing joy to people is a positive thing.