KATHERINE MOENNIG

I think my comparison with Shane would be a loner. I always got the impression that she wasn't scared to be alone. She enjoys it. I can relate to that.

I'm not thrilled that I have a tramp stamp. When you see people bend over in their really low-cut jeans, I'm like, 'Oh... that's what I have.'

I went to this tattoo parlor in the East Village and I got an outline of a violin on my lower back. They call them tramp stamps now.

I like stories that are not normal, everyday lives. I don't personally seek them out, but they find me.

What I find very attractive, what I find sexual, are people who are unapologetic for who they are and comfortable with themselves. And I think with those two things sexual energy does come out because you're not hovering or censoring yourself, you're just being who you are. And being who you are is a very attractive quality in a person.

My best friend growing up really put the bug in my ear about acting. We created this one hour-and-a-half improv play when we were 10 or 11 and performed it at the library. We just played off each other so well and had the best time doing it and the funniest part was, we wound up having packed houses, other people loved it too.

My biggest challenge is trust, and really believing that trust, in letting things just happen personally and professionally and trust with myself. But I'm getting better at it.

I went to an all-girls pre school where everyone went off to Harvard or Yale, and I had zero interest in doing so. I think they thought I was on drugs. There was a neighboring all-boys school, so we'd get together and do dumb things. It was your typical Catholic-American upbringing.

Stage is about imperfections and working with them, whether it be from you or the audience.

When someone gets closely related to a character they play on TV, it's very hard to break that mold and go on to do something else.

The characters I've played that people have noticed included a cross-dresser and a transsexual.

I'm here to play different characters.

I wanted to be a violin-maker like my dad, and then I wanted to be a doorman in my building.

In terms of 'Ray Donovan,' the story is so rich, the actors are so fantastic, the writing is impeccable. And it's such beautiful storytelling with complex characters.

I don't think I look like a boy, but I don't think androgyny is such a bad thing.

Let's call a spade a spade: when people look at me, they say, 'Oh, she's the androgynous one.' I'll tell you what type of character I would never be offered out there: The femme fatale. Or the white-trash, heterosexual hillbilly.

I have to say a part of me was a little terrified to be only looked at as Shane from 'The L Word.' I was very conscious of doing something that would steer me clear or just steer me in a different direction.

You're always attracted to someone you want to learn from.

I have no hips, and I feel like my body's like a teenage boy's. But I can have the hair long, put on makeup, wear a dress, and do the exact opposite as well.

I've seen up close what can happen when actors talk publicly about their relationships: their personal life gets dismantled. It's a show business game, and it's one game I won't play.

I would not want to play a girl who masquerades as a boy for the rest of my life.

God love the iPhone. Best time waster of the century.

I expect that it won't be an easy road once 'The L Word' is over, but I'm gonna do everything in my power during my time off to do other things that show another side of me.

Why do people care if I'm gay or not?

I come from a family of artists.