John Cameron Mitchell

I went to a very small Catholic school. It wasn't an easy place to be growing up gay.

Growing up, it was uncool to admit that your family had any money. And then, instantly, money was cool. In Reagan's parlance, it was about freedom of the individual, which was freedom to be greedy... individual versus society. There was a weird seduction in that, which I still feel.

We need punk now; we need it more than ever. We need rebellion by youth.

I'd like to do some female roles again.

Hedwig' is not autobiographical, but what she goes through is clearly a big metaphor. She doesn't want to be what she is, but she comes to an understanding that what happened to her has actually made her whole.

After the first 'Hedwig,' interestingly, I was offered to play Hamlet a couple of times.

As you get older, you treasure the beautiful things of the past but also see things more clearly.

It's the weird thing that actors do: You jumped across that building because the scene required it.

Getting the blood moving through your body does do wonders for your complexion.

I think as far as themes, 'Hedwig' is about what music meant to you as a kid and how rock n' roll can save you; that is definitely part of it.

I don't regret anything, because I feel better every year, and if I'd done something different, maybe I wouldn't. I'm more of a whole person, the older I get.

I am just touched at how strongly the real Hed-heads feel. It feels different from other kinds of devotees; maybe it's the way I felt with certain bands when I was a kid. It feels like a band more than a play.