Lily Rabe quotes:

One of my mother's friends said to me, 'Your ex-boyfriends didn't stand a chance with you and your mother.' And I think I probably was unfair to them because she was the first person and the last person I called about every single thing. Sorry, ex-boyfriends.

When I was in high school and college, my other real focus was, actually, fiction writing. So in college, I had done all these seminars with these various writers-in-residence.

Before I ever start a job that I'm really excited about, I usually have some sleepless nights or weeks or months. But that anticipation for a person like me... I don't do so well with a lot of time off.

Listen, a cable series is a beautiful thing because there's such amazing writing happening on television, and it's a schedule that allows you to do a play or two. There's a reason everybody wants that job!

As someone who's been doing a lot of classical theater recently, I loved the idea of getting to run around in Steven Alan, and not be in a corset and a wig, and not have a dialect, and get to be in a 90-minute play with no intermission, and get to do real comedy.

The focus of our family life was homework and what was for dinner; getting to ballet rehearsal and getting my brother to soccer.

I did have wonderful things to draw from, from my own experience and also just from friends and people I'd gone to school with who were very much immersed in this world right now.

I had never done a 90-minute play with no intermission, so it is a bit like you get onto the train and you don't get off until it's over - and it's over very quickly, so don't miss a moment of it. That experience is very rare and specific so don't miss a minute, because there aren't very many minutes of it.

So, for the most part, I really like when I read a scene that scares me and makes me sweat a little bit, thinking about doing it. That's usually a good sign to me.

The only thing that matters is the theater!

To be working in the theater steadily and to be recognized and appreciated by the community means the world.

All I really want to do is someday be in a western. If I could be on a horse with a rifle, I would be a really happy camper.

I will say that I've been lucky enough never to have to do a job I didn't want to do, or a play I wasn't in love with.

Mark Conseulos is so amazing.

Truthfully, I don't know how those special effects people do it.

I am my parents' daughter, and I always want to be. But I first wanted to make sure that I was standing on my own two feet.

I know it's such a boring interview sometimes with us at 'American Horror Story', but I just can't say a word. I would certainly love to be back, that's for sure. It's such a great job.

Being a part of the theater community has been important to me from the time I was a child, through my parents.

I can't actually think of a job where I was relaxed the whole time. I don't think I would want to do that job. When I break into a cold sweat when I'm reading, I think, 'Oh good. That's what's supposed to be happening.'

It's sort of scary to work with your parents when you're in the same business. But there was something so very safe about that. Acting with her was just like working with a wonderful actress who just happens to be my best friend and also my mother.

For a long time I was cautious of working with my parents because I wanted to feel separate from them in the community. Now there's no more wasting time.

I can't actually think of a job where I was relaxed the whole time. I don't think I would want to do that job. When I break into a cold sweat when I'm reading, I think, 'Oh good. That's what's supposed to be happening.

I really like when I read a scene and it scares me. That makes me excited.

I think every script I read has something that sends me into a state of panic but that usually makes me want to do it.

It's very hard when you're doing a new play that you believe in, and you want to tell the story in the best way possible.

I've been the victim a lot, so I've often played the person who's getting raped or murdered or abused. And so, to actually be raping and murdering and abusing people is a whole different kind of challenge, and one that was very difficult, at times.

No, I'm not feminist. I'm not, not a feminist.

Sometimes I would go home from work and just stare at the wall for a couple of hours. But, I can't complain. Whatever knocks you out working is the kind of work that I want to be doing because it's always those challenges that are the most exciting, and the things I hope to get to keep doing in my work.

When I was teeny tiny, I definitely had a voice that didn't quite match the way I looked at five.

You want to feel like people are hiring you because they want to work with you, not because of who your parents are.