Aaron Tveit quotes:

I grew up about 60 miles northwest of New York, in Middletown, NY.

I was very unsure about what I wanted to do in high school.

It used to be that you kind of got pigeonholed into one thing - you're either a stage actor or a TV actor or a movie actor. Today, there's a lot of crossover with film actors doing television, which never happened before, so those lines are a little bit more blurred than they used to be.

I had an acting teacher tell me once that if you're playing a car salesman, you don't want to be an OK car salesman, you want to play the best car salesman.

I can clap with one hand.

Awards are not something that I measure my work by. I've been so fortunate and I've gotten to do such terrific things that it seems petty to look back and say, 'Oh, I should have gotten that prize.' I don't look at it that way.

Cats and I have an understanding, but we choose not to interact often.

Rent' was my first professional job, ever.

After 9/11, the amount of applicants the FBI received increased exponentially. Whereas you used to require a college degree, and it was a small group of people who were just out of college, after 9/11, it changed.

Being onstage is just a feeling that you cannot duplicate anywhere else because the energy that the audience is giving you forces you to give more energy. It's such an output and exchange of energy. You can't do that anywhere else.

Typecasting is an interesting thing because, in a way, if you're good at something, you're going to work at that thing. In other ways, you constantly have to change people's opinion of you as one thing, especially if you want to play different roles. You have to shatter that image sometimes.

Coming from a background of being onstage, you're onstage for two and a half hours and you're in it for the whole time no matter what you're doing. Even if you don't have a line, you have to stay in it.

You always have to make positive choices as an actor, even when you're playing someone who may not be doing the best things.

I listen to all kinds of music, but I've always been a really big fan of Top 40 radio. If I'm in my car, that's what I listen to.

Singing for stage, if you don't hear yourself, that's when you push, and that's when you can hurt your voice sometimes. So if I can hear myself in my ear, it really helps me to find that balance of how loud I needed to be singing.

I was a very awkward high schooler, especially in early high school.

I watch a lot of television. I always have.

I watched so many movies when I was a kid, and I'd watch them over and over.

I didn't grow up a theatre kid, going to theatre camps. I played sports, and that was my main direction. But luckily, I never had to choose between sports and theatre."

People saw me as just a singer - yeah, a pretty face who could sing - and not more than that.

I didn't grow up a theatre kid, going to theatre camps. I played sports, and that was my main direction. But luckily, I never had to choose between sports and theatre.

What is wrong with you people?

It's interesting, a lot of my friends and family thought that was the moment I kind of showed everyone my humor; the silly side of me that friends and family know, so that could be what people were responding to. I have a big sense of humor, and people who know me know that silly side of me, so moving forward, I think it gives me the freedom and confidence to do more of that.

I'm ready and open to meeting the person that hopefully I'll share my life with. It takes a long time to get to that place.

Life doesn't move in a linear fashion. Life makes lefts and rights, and it doubles back.

Basically, I didn't want to sing anything for the sake of singing it. There were some songs where I really wailed, but because it's such an intimate space anything I chose to sing simply to make sound was going to come off an inauthentic. So I was really happy with where it landed - every song I sang, I loved for one reason or another. I didn't have to worry about selling a song.

I still sing every day - in the shower or on the set all day. I'm sure everyone will tell you that I never shut up. But it's not in the capacity that I would like to.

Things don't always tie up in a nice bow. Even when you make strides with people and relationships, it's complicated.

I was a very awkward high schooler, especially in early high school. I had the middle part with a swoop, all that. It was the late â??90s!

Once I came to acting, it was almost a thing where there weren't enough hours in the day to work on stuff because I was so passionate about it.

I love working in film and television, but I do miss singing on stage. You can't find that anywhere else, so I hope this opens up a whole new concert world for me. I had so much fun and it went so well, I hope it leads to more.

In an ideal world for me, I would like to go back and forth [between film and theater]. I kind of want to do it all

Sometimes chemistry does the trick, and other times, you have to forge that with the people.

I feel like I've been dealing with that building over the years because of the Broadway community, so I'm treating it in the same way - I've always tried to keep my personal life private. I didn't get into this business for notoriety or fame. I don't go to places to be seen and that's not going to change.

People saw me as just a singer - yeah, a pretty face who could sing - and not more than that,

I'm at a place in my life where I do finally feel, at least most of the time, that I know who I am and I'm comfortable with the person that I am.

It's every actor's dream to work in a hit show on Broadway and also shoot a television show.

In other ways, you constantly have to change people's opinion of you as one thing, especially if you want to play different roles. You have to shatter that image sometimes. I've had to do it before with stage roles, to get roles. I'm drawn to kind of darker, misfit things. I would like to, especially in film, play against type and do some heavier stuff. I'm intrigued by projects that deal with problematic people and things.

I would like to, especially in film, play against type and do some heavier stuff. I'm intrigued by projects that deal with problematic people and things.

Especially like right now, I'm not shooting a show so you get to act. You get to do that stuff, kind of treat everyone as 'All right, throw the paint against the wall and see what I can do with this and what people say.' I think it's a great mental workout because you have to ready something, learn something fast. It's good to stay on your toes and keep sharp if you're auditioning.

I just feel like I have a lot to prove.

I like auditioning! A lot of people hate it, but I like it.

Depression is something that seems really obscure when you see it in a theater, but when you talk to people who come to see it and hear their reactions, you realize that it is such a prevalent part of life and our society today that it really needed to be told, and still needs to be told.

That's the thing about stage: It's something you can't find anywhere else. It's a two-and-a-half, three-hour experience, and it's a real relationship. You're sending out energy from the stage, but the audience is giving you back so much also, so that's also lifting you and pushing you forward as you're performing and giving you so much energy. You can't find it anywhere else, and that's why people get addicted to being on stage, and when they're not on stage are kind of looking for that and constantly searching for it.