FRANKIE GRANDE

I have at least four Starbucks drinks a day.

I'm extremely excited about returning to my alma mater, working with my amazing professors and being part of Muhlenberg Theatre & Dance once again. I believe the program to be the absolute best in the nation!

Broadway performers are the best-trained people on the planet.

I love Muhlenberg. I'm an academic. I needed a small school with incredible programs and found that here. I learned so much and grew so much in four years.

Madonna is my absolute queen - as a performer, there's no one better than her.

I love being back on the East Coast.

I can pretty much name and rattle off the genus and species of all the bugs you see in everyday life.

My favorite vacation destination is Hawaii.

I remember being so nervous to tell my little sister. I was like, 'I have something to tell you... I'm gay.' And she was like, 'Cool, do you have a boyfriend?' And I was like, 'Yeah,' and she was like, 'When do I get to meet him?' I was, like, 'Really? It's that simple?' So it went really well.

I am emoji-heavy as hell. I'd use the same emoji 140 times just to communicate how excited I am.

I have a major weakness for Oreo cookies and David Yurman jewelry.

OMG, I have my 'Mamma Mia!' playbill framed in my bedroom. It was magical! I totally cried... a lot! I remember collecting playbills my entire life, and then to be in one... I have no words.

You can see things growing up, be inspired by things. Just because they're not around anymore doesn't mean that you can't take those inspirations and bring them to life and bring them to the next generation.

I am here today as an example to all that have gone through a personal hell or are going through it right now, whatever that hell might be for you, that you can become whole again. In fact, you can become stronger than you ever thought possible.

Opening presents at midnight on Christmas Eve - midnight! As soon as it turns to Christmas Day, we're opening those gifts.

My mom. My grandma, my grandfather. We have a very strong, strong line of amazing people in the family. Very strong women.

There's a lot of audience participation in 'Rock of Ages' and 'Rocky Horror.'

I want people to be obsessed with Broadway and theatre as much as I am.

If you happen to be in an environment where people are not accepting of who you are, you just need to know that's not always the way it will be.

I think operating in a mode of fear, and operating from a mode of fear, is not going to get us anywhere, as a people, or me, as a person. So I don't operate from that place.

I was in love with Ryan Phillippe. I mean, like, who wasn't?

I try very hard to live my life in an exemplary way, which is, you know, 'Shine bright like Frankie.'

Women who have been with man after man after man after man choose to become a lesbian later in life. Gay men, it doesn't work so much that way.

The party life that had once given me so much confidence and comfort had turned into a nightmare where I never felt more alone.

My mother is a rock. She's my rock, she's Ariana's rock, and she has been a huge example of how to get through some difficult situations with strength, dignity, her head held high.