KELLI O'HARA

Every part has its relief when I'm done with it.

I've been singing since I was nine or ten.

I loved to sing and I loved to act, and I didn't want to continue opera because I wanted to act.

Playing characters allows me to do things I may not always do, while singing in concerts allows me to really find my own voice and grow.

My mom's side of the family is from Arkansas!

There is such a cliche to certain roles that all I can do is to try to make them realistic and work for the times, and so the audience actually won't see me as a caricature of something, but rather as an actual person.

If I get tickled in a certain way, I actually lose the ability to stand. I don't mean to, but something happens to my knees, and I fall on the ground.

It's always hard - it's a little counterintuitive to leave your baby at any point during the infancy.

'South Pacific' has a definite heaviness that people don't realize. It's got a seriousness and a message.

I love to play things that are out-of-the-box. It's just that I don't always get the chance to do it!

In my special place, room service could only consist of my husband making me a breakfast of eggs, avocados, and hummus. And coffee with milk.

Shakespeare has great ability to skirt around a subject and portray human nature.

Some songs depend heavily on the character, but, for the most part, a great song begs for reinterpretation every time it is sung, even when in character.

I think anything emotional adds to your acting and singing, no matter what it is that you go through. It will always add to it, never take away.

It is such a luxury to open a new book that's highly recommended by friends - either an inspirational yet humorously self-deprecating memoir, or a page-turning piece of fiction.

When I was a kid, I would sing in people's living rooms and for different little family things.

I feel so rich in my emotions and in my life and so grateful when I'm home and so grateful when I'm at work.

I'm a mother, and when you have children, there's a protection. You'll do a lot to protect them, to do what's best for them.

The hardest role that I've ever tried to play was Clara Johnson in 'Light in the Piazza' at Lincoln Center. It was the least fun I've ever had, but the most beautiful experience I've ever had. I could not understand her. I could not put my feet in her shoes. I came home every night, and I was depressed.

I don't read reviews, because if you believe the good ones, you have to believe the bad.

With a revival, you're compared to somebody else.

When you step out and do a song in a musical, the easier thing to do is make it funny. But when those transitions become necessary, when they aren't camp, that, to me, is magic. I've done musical comedies and enjoyed them, but subject matter that's deeper and more realistic is always what's appealed to me most.

I grew up on a farm.

I love playing an ingenue, and I love doing revivals, and I will continue to do that.

I've always wanted my characters to have more dimension and realistic cores than the ingenue material often provides. It's been a challenge.