Bryan Batt

No one is a plain white room. I hate going into a home that is done to the nines but has nothing do with the homeowner - no knickknacks, no art that has anything to say about the person who lives there.

If you see something that speaks to you and you can swing it, don't question. I don't regret anything that I've ever bought, only the things that slipped away.

I watch the TV or learn scripts while on the elliptical - need to get back on it!

I changed the lyrics of 'All I Need Is the Girl' to 'All I Need Is the Job' for an audition years ago. It's a great ice-breaker - people want to laugh.

Any of Bette Midler's concerts should be required viewing for every actor/performer. She has the audience in the palm of her hands at all times and can switch emotions on a dime: Great singer, great actress, great comedian - fearless.

My favorite song as a boy was definitely 'Downtown' recorded by Petula Clark. I still love it! And the original cast recording of 'Gypsy'; I played my mother's cast recordings until there was no vinyl left.

I live a bi-coastal and sometimes tri-coastal life.

Le Petit is where I cut my teeth with some of my early roles. In 1982, I was in the chorus of 'Gypsy' and soon after I had my first lead as Jamie Lockhart in 'The Robber Bridegroom.'

We have a costume closet at home. My family will put on a costume for any excuse.

The writing was so clearly written on the wall about me, but I didn't see it. I had no role models. I didn't know there was even a possibility of being gay. I battled with it, but this was the way God made me. If you have a problem with it, take it up with the man upstairs.

In the dining room, next to my collection of colorful papier-mache Mardi Gras float art, hang draperies made of the New Orleans toile fabric that I designed pre-Katrina for Hazelnut.

I am a collector of many things, but I particularly love the sterling silver mint julep cups, each engraved with the titles of the Broadway shows in which I appeared.

I tend to wake up in the middle of the night with ideas crying to be documented.

I've lived in N.Y. and L.A. for many years, but I still gravitate to New Orleans - it's so unique and so European. There's nothing else like it in the country. It has its own music, its own food, its own style and its own way of life.

I did grow up in New Orleans. I grew up right on the lake, right across the levee.

When people ask, 'What role are you dying to play?' I always say, 'The one being written for me right now.'

My family's business was actually an amusement park in New Orleans. My grandfather had started that, and my grandmother was a dance maven in New Orleans. It was just the theatricality and the Mardi Gras and the pageantry that I fell in love with at an early age.

You know, I think I was always intrigued by theater since I was a small child.

As a rule, I try to avoid the French Quarter because of the crowds, especially Bourbon Street. But hey, some people love it. A great, wild, adult thing to see is the costume competition in front of the bar Oz on Bourbon early morning on Fat Tuesday.

There are many Broadway songs that apply to moments on 'Mad Men,' and I sing them on set all the time.