“But now that I’ve matured, I’ve realized that – at the end of the day – what’s really important is the work, not what people think of me.”
― Jane Lynch
“No one’s just going to hand you a career. I waited for years for someone to hand me one and it never happened.”
― Jane Lynch
“I know it sounds new age-y, but what I’ve truly come up with is that you really need to trust that you’re on your own path, as long as you stay true to it and you show up, which is 99% of it.”
― Jane Lynch
“I was not the kid that hung out at the arcade.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“I love the character I played in ‘Criminal Minds.’”
― Jane Lynch
“So much of Sue Sylvester, the angry woman, came from that part of my life, wanting to crush other people’s dreams and judging others so harshly, which is always just a way of deflecting your own self-judgment.”
― Jane Lynch
“I never went through a biological clock experience. I never even heard it ticking.”
― Jane Lynch
“I don’t wear particular designers. I wear whoever fits me well.”
― Jane Lynch
“I have acting technique; I have singing technique; I don’t have a writing technique to fall back on.”
― Jane Lynch
“I go to coffee shops for my outlet. Which is just not healthy at all.”
― Jane Lynch
“I’m kind of a manic exerciser. I’ll like exercise for a week and be crazy, and then I won’t do it for six months.”
― Jane Lynch
“Making people laugh is a really fabulous thing because it means you’re getting deep inside somebody, into their psyche, and their ability to look at themselves.”
― Jane Lynch
“I have to admit that I was a little nervous when I showed up for my first official ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ recording session.”
― Jane Lynch
“When I was younger, I actually wanted to be in the spotlight. To have people want me, want to have a piece of me.”
― Jane Lynch
“I’ve just always loved singing, and I come from a family that loves singing around the kitchen table.”
― Jane Lynch
“I stopped watching television like a fiend once I got into college.”
― Jane Lynch
“I was a huge ‘Friends’ fan. I had a very small part. I played a real-estate agent in the very last season.”
― Jane Lynch
“Football is very masculine and, to me, a metaphor for war.”
― Jane Lynch
“My first love, in my head, believe it or not, was Ron Howard.”
― Jane Lynch
“To this day, I still would choose the angst over something easier, when I really don’t have to.”
― Jane Lynch
“I’m kind of a ‘Fix-It Felix’ video girl. I like the simpler, sweeter kind of games.”
― Jane Lynch
“I’m a person who likes habit and knowing what my job is.”
― Jane Lynch
“I do like to go to movies. I like to be in the theater. I like the event of it.”
― Jane Lynch
“I like for Sue Sylvester to be firing on all cylinders.”
― Jane Lynch
“’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!”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“I grew up in a Southside suburb of Chicago. It was idyllic. But I was plunked into a family that was not artistic and didn’t know how to deal with my emotions.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“I’ve had days here and there where I would get discouraged because I wasn’t a big star, but I’ve made a living ever since I was 27. Not a great living, but enough for me. I think actually being able to pay my rent and eat and perform is enough, and I did that for many years. Then I had some good years in there, too, where I made pretty good money.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“I became quite a diva, and intolerant, and people knew when I was not pleased. Some people were afraid of me, and other people just kind of blew me off. But I wasn’t making any friends. I only had one person who remained my friend, and he was my boyfriend for a while. Even though I told him I was gay, he was like, ‘That’s alright.’”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“I’ve never really had specific goals and stuff like that – I think I sort of learned early on that if you kind of let life roll in at your feet, you will get a lot of great stuff if you are just aware and open to it.”
― Jane Lynch
“I don’t really sit there and think, ‘What would I like my life to be?’”
― Jane Lynch
“The funniest people are usually the best actors, I believe.”
― Jane Lynch
“I love being the villain.”
― Jane Lynch
“I’ve never been a cheerleader. It’s so outside of my range of things I could ever do.”
― Jane Lynch
“I worried too much when I was a kid.”
― Jane Lynch
“I always ended up having the funny part in Shakespeare, but I really thought I’d be doing theater. That was my ambition for myself.”
― Jane Lynch
“I wanted to do something where I could hang my hat.”
― Jane Lynch
“It’s really fun to come to the same place to work every day.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“My brother was listening to his transistor radio. He kept switching the earpiece from one ear to the other, which I thought was his idea of a joke. ‘You can’t do that,’ I said. ‘You can only hear out of one ear.’ ‘No, I can hear out of both,’ he answered. And that was how I discovered I was deaf in my right ear.”
― Jane Lynch
“I’d drop whatever I was doing to show up to do the graveyard shift of ‘America’s Shopping Place.’”
― Jane Lynch
“Charlie Sheen was such a pro.”
― Jane Lynch
“The world, universe, God, whatever you call it, has so much more in store if you just sit back and relax and do what’s right in front of you.”
― Jane Lynch
“Standing by myself, just having everybody looking at me the entire time, is not my idea of a good time.”
― Jane Lynch
“Once you start classifying and trying to identify your own comedy style, you’ve ceased to be funny.”
― Jane Lynch
“The more I become comfortable in my own skin, I think the funnier I become.”
― Jane Lynch
“I’ve actually never done standup before.”
― Jane Lynch
“I’m an actor more than anything else.”
― Jane Lynch
“I love doing sketches, but I don’t relish being by myself. That’s not something I’m used to doing.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“I would love to do the therapist on ‘Two and a Half Men’ again or just work with Charlie Sheen.”
― Jane Lynch
“I love Matt LeBlanc in ‘Episodes’ – he’s very good. And the ‘Modern Family’ cast just cracks me up.”
― Jane Lynch
“I’ve always sung. My dad had a song in his heart and on his lips 24/7. A lot of the time, it was the same song and the same phrase over and over again.”
― Jane Lynch
“A lot of the songs in ‘See Jane Sing!’ are pulled straight from the kitchen table and my parents harmonizing together.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“Will Ferrell in ‘Talladega Nights.’ He’s a very generous performer. He’s kind of just one of the guys, but his name happens to be above the title.”
― Jane Lynch
“I’m fascinated by Greta Garbo. My cat’s named Greta, and I have a framed photograph of her from 1949.”
― Jane Lynch
“I love Jennifer Saunders, the ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ creator.”
― Jane Lynch
“I can fool people that I was educated.”
― Jane Lynch
“I never thought I would work with Meryl Streep. I also love Cate Blanchett.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“I love being in these ensemble comedy movies. I love working with a bunch of people and coming up with, you know, How can we make this moment funnier?”
― Jane Lynch
“It has to come from a truthful place in order to be funny.”
― Jane Lynch
“If you’re contriving something, if you’re making something up, it’s not funny. You can tell. It’s instant. It has to come from someplace real.”
― Jane Lynch
“From the start. As early as – I felt I was in the wrong sex; I really did. I would go into my dad’s room and put on his clothes.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“I wanted to – any chance I had to dress up as a boy, like Halloween, I would be a pirate or a ghost that wore a tie. A hobo.”
― Jane Lynch
“I get the male thing. I like being that for a woman. But I also like being a woman, too. I like being girly.”
― Jane Lynch
“When I’m not feeling good about how I look, I figure if I just buy the right piece of clothing, I’ll feel all right.”
― Jane Lynch
“I try to dress the bottom I have. The body I have and the bottom I have. I have the intention of looking fabulous every time, and I care about it a great deal. I’m very vain.”
― Jane Lynch
“One of the few advantages to not being beautiful is that one usually gets better-looking as one gets older; I am, in fact, at this very moment, gaining my looks.”
― Jane Lynch
“I was filled with angst all the time, but when it came down to it, I dove into what was in front of me, and I always did my best. I invested 100 percent. And that’s what saved me.”
― Jane Lynch
“Nothing like falling in love with a dead actress to prove your sanity.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“I’m like Jay Gatsby. I like to throw the party and then stand back, looking gorgeous. Stand back and watch it.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a boy. I really had gender issues.”
― Jane Lynch
“I think the only way we can really get you to laugh hard is if we take it to a deep psychological place. It has to resonate with you on a really deep level in order for you to really do that good guffaw.”
― Jane Lynch
“The comedians who I admire that are really good, they always take it to a deep psychological place.”
― Jane Lynch
“I’ve been in Chicago for every Christmas of my life.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“I don’t have to talk to a surgeon to play a surgeon, you know what I mean?”
― Jane Lynch
“When I was a kid, we would get McDonalds on Christmas Eve, and that was a big deal because the closest one to the south side of Chicago was a 35 minute drive away. I remember opening the bag and smelling those fries, and even now when I smell them, it reminds me of Christmas Eve.”
― Jane Lynch
“My parents felt judged by me.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“I can be kind of razor sharp in my disapproval.”
― Jane Lynch
“It was my own internalised homophobia. I didn’t want to be gay.”
― Jane Lynch
“I didn’t have a coming out moment.”
― Jane Lynch
“There are still parts of the country where it’s hard: when you realize you’re gay, it’s like a death sentence.”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“We’re all conditioned to think we have to get to the top and be the best.”
― Jane Lynch
“My first-ever role was the king in ‘The Princess and the Pea.’”
― Jane Lynch
“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.”
― Jane Lynch
“I love that there are all these macho guy actors out there that have secret desires to be on ‘Glee.’”
― Jane Lynch
“I auditioned for a one-act version of ‘The Princess and the Pea’ called ‘The Ugly Duckling,’ and I was cast as the King, starting a pattern of being cast in roles originally intended for men. I went to the first rehearsal, and I didn’t get any laughs, and I choked and I quit. I walked away from it and joined the tennis team.”
― Jane Lynch
“I love James Taylor and Carole King, Joni Mitchell – this is, like, early ’70s stuff. I love the stuff from the ’40s. I love that tight harmony that the studio singers in the ’50s would sing. I love Patsy Cline. Yeah, I’m all over the place.”
― Jane Lynch
“I think my cruelty hides beneath the surface a lot more than Sue Sylvester’s.”
― Jane Lynch
“I do feel that softness for the vulnerability and the innocence in our world, including my own.”
― Jane Lynch
“I think about Chicago as being a very actor-centered theater town, and people aren’t in it to get to the next level, like movies and television. We’re there for the love of the theater. So I think it fit right into my particular skill set, which is I love performing live.”
― Jane Lynch
“I watch very selective television. I watch ‘Mad Men,’ and I usually watch a season at a time.”
― Jane Lynch
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