Quotes from Alice Ripley

You always kind of feel like you're rolling the dice as an actor.

I'm like a prize fighter. When I'm not on stage, every action that I take has to be focused on my next performance.

I had to go off by myself to try and discover what my talent really was.

When it comes to your creative life and what it's going to take, you will do a disservice to everybody if you just dabble.

The audience fills me back up, definitely.

Sometimes, you find the play; sometimes, the play finds you.

When 'Next to Normal' won the Pulitzer, that was the moment I felt the show was being defined. There's a certain confidence that comes with being selected.

I'm a strong follower of hydrotherapy.

Part of the frustration of being bipolar is people don't understand what it feels like.

I've been committed to personal growth since I was a teenager, and I'm a believer in the idea that your thought is the only thing that matters.

Leisure time is when I'm not at the Booth Theater.

Sometimes you're the only one who thinks you have a good idea.

I'm drawn to raw material and raw emotions.

My favorite thing as a performing artist is to get a pile of raw material from a writer who says, 'Will you help me make this real?' There's nothing like starting from scratch.

I've always been drawn to raw material.

As a teen, 'Thunder Road' was always in my head.

When you're an actor, you do get involved with your characters - your emotional life is tied up with theirs, and so is your physical life.

It's hard being a Barbie doll all the time.

It's heartbreaking to see theater people be forced to accept the business side of show business.

All day I wait for my job, which I do at night, and once I get there, I walk a tightrope, jump through hoops, and take breathtaking dives.

I just think Brian d'Arcy James is a dream come true. I've known of him ever since I saw him in 'Titanic,' and I fell crazy in love with him at that moment.

I am always talking to students and telling them how you have to practice every day because you can't wait for someone to hire you. You need something you do for yourself, something that feeds your creative life.

Tom Kitt aside - he's in his own category with me, of course - Stephen Sondheim is one of my all-time favorite composers.

'American Psycho' reminds me of my track in 'Tommy,' my first Broadway show. It's similar conceptually and has that rock n' roll streak.