(on her name) ”I don’t know what culture it’s from, but my mom saw it in on an episode of Fantasy Island. I have never seen the show, but I hear it’s hysterical. She saw some water goddess who came out of the water, and her name was Naya, and she was like, ‘I love that name.’ She had a parrot and she named her parrot Naya, before she had me.”
“I am a New Yorker. Every pore, every hair on my body is a New Yorker. I love the noise. I love the dirt. I love the smell. I love crazy people. I love every single thing about New York. It just makes me.”
“So when I sold the ‘Glee’ pilot and started to write down the part, I said there’s only one girl who can play this. We never found anybody else, and then you do the studio and network test, and you’re supposed to bring ten people in, and I said she’s the only one, and then she opened her mouth and sang and all the guys were crying, and they hired her, literally on the spot, in the room.” - Ryan Murphy
