My mother's side of the family is Methodist, which is how I was raised. It was conservative in that I had strong values - sitting down and eating with the family every day, listening to authority and going to church every week and having perfect attendance at Sunday school.

Just follow your joy. Always. I think that if you do that, life will take you on the course that it's meant to take you.

But at the same time, my parents always encouraged my brother and me to be happy with what we were doing. My parents were athletes in high school my mom and my dad were the stars of the basketball team, but they never pushed my brother and me to be anything we didn't want to be.

I sort of have the belief that you work being your character out while you're working on it, or that's been my experience so far. I throw myself into it 100% and try to live in that world, and then when it's over, just sort of be able to leave it behind.

I love acting in the theater,but I'm fascinated with acting on film. If it's a film or a play or whatever, if the writing is good and you really feel passionate about it, you just can't lose. You'll grow from it. Whether it's a success or not is neither here nor there you're going to grow as an artist from this experience.

At the end of the day, the end of the movie is sort of ambiguous - it's whatever you want it to be.

Make sure that you always follow your heart and your gut, and let yourself be who you want to be, and who you know you are. And don't let anyone steal your joy.

We didn't have a glee club at my school. It depends on what area of the States you're from. It's more in the Midwest.

I went to a local high school in Lancaster. Not much I can say about it it was pretty much your typical public high school back in Pennsylvania.

In a play, you can adjust your performance to audience reaction, but in a film it's like you're trapped in a bad dream watching yourself act and you're in the audience

If I were to be back on Glee, I would like to spend some time with Lea Michele because I love her and we go way back.