Growing up in New York City, I'd flirted with the idea of driving, but between the subway and the sidewalks, I'd never needed to learn.

There were not a lot of women in the theater department - it was really run by men, and so the message was that women can be onstage, but women can't really be backstage.

I would like there to be gender equity. I would like the Broadway season to reflect sort of the demographic of the country.

In many ways, I consider those to be my formative years, because when you're in school, you have a distant relationship to the world in that most of what you're learning is from books and lectures. But at Amnesty, I came face to face with realities in a very direct and harsh way.

I love it right now. I love being retired. I think I retired at a perfect time in my career. Now I get an opportunity to spend time with my wife and kids and get to be very supportive of them. My son is playing football right now. My daughter is in gymnastics. Both are competing at a high level. So it came at the right time.

I come from a big family of hairdressers; they didn't read newspapers. I would say, 'I'm off to Afghanistan...' and they would say, 'Have fun!'

The people that have inspired me the most were dancers and choreographers. Even growing up, if I dealt with any pressure to be a certain way, I knew that as an artistic lane, dancing was the one that was a little more freed up - like, no one in my family is really doing that; I can be that person.

Music was always a big part of my family. Only a few of us had the talent - or the courage - to walk out on a stage.