Ryan Murphy

I am not going to do anything unless I am afraid of it.

I actually think actors both are drawn to playing real-life historical people and are terrified.

I lean into fear because I feel like that excites me as an artist.

When I talk to young people, I always tell them the biggest lesson I learned was that you shouldn't care about the outcome. If it fails, it fails. Every failure will groom you for your next big reward.

I feel every day that everything I create - everything I do - I want it to be a risk. I think when you take the big swings - and I've done plenty of big swings that I was told were never going to work - those are always the things that break through.

I love Larry Kramer's advocacy, and I love him as a person, and I think young people need to see that story.

I came of age during AIDS and the terror of that and the sadness and the death and the overwhelming despair.

I love 'Girls' on HBO because it's brave and cool.

I'm passionate about actors, and I'm passionate about showing actors in different lights.

I think John Landgraf sees things in the same way I do. We see eye to eye on a lot.

With all of my work, it always takes a while for people to get it.

You can't be the enfant terrible when you have the enfant at home.

When I was starting out in Hollywood, everything was such a battle.

People think I'm just sort of this P. T. Barnum, razzle-dazzle guy. They think I go out of my way to be outlandish and theatrical at the expense of having emotions. They don't get that there's another side to me, and I keep trying to show that other side.

Part of being an artist is being able to write about the world you live in and the times that you've been a part of.

I'll ask the writers' room who they voted for Emmy awards, but I'll never ask who they voted for president.

It's interesting when women direct. The work is better. They ask more people to participate.

I feel every day that everything I create - everything I do - I want it to be a risk.

I started off in this business in 1998, and I didn't fit in. There was no place for me, and I always felt like an oddball. Nobody really understood my work or what I wanted to do in my references.

I think everyone wants for their children a world that's better than the one they came up in.