I'm probably my biggest critic. I worry that if you spend any quality time reveling in good things then karma will slap you upside the head, so I try to stay as even keel as I'm able.
All of a sudden, one day, you're this boxer that everybody like, or you're this guy that people pass on the highway and wave at. The next day, you're this guy that everybody want to touch - be in touch with you. Then you think that this is the answer to all things.
Getting the chance at 40 to make up stories that other people would draw and other people would then read is pretty weird.
At first blush, it seems odd that loser lit books are rejected initially, then go on to be fiercely loved by legions of readers. This apparent contradiction might be due to the fact that if they didn't screw up their lives, most losers would be the kind of power-elite, Type A go-getters whom readers love to hate.
I was listening to a lot of math rock-y type bands do lots of complex stuff and I couldn't figure out how they were doing it. Then I realized that sometimes they were finger tapping, so I started messing around doing it.
When I play, I feel like I'm in a theatre, why should I look ugly then, because I'm a tennis-player?
My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery - always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What's this passion for?
Nationalism in Norway was very strong in 1905, that we must be free of Sweden. But I must say, I'm not 100 percent sure that was a wise decision. We had the war; we were occupied by Germans from 1940 to '45. And if there had been one Scandinavian country, then it would not have been so very easy probably to go ahead with the occupation.
When someone says you can't do what you know you can do, then you can't do anything.
I don't have beef with nobody... You know when it's beef, because then we just start playing scoreboard, and nobody wants to play scoreboard.
Back then, everyone was Lana and Rock. No one had ethnic names.
The kind of roles which you get, people identify with your roles, and it then leads to the kind of brands you get.
As soon as I went to painting school in New York, I took an experimental film course, and everything clicked and came together. I realized my love of music and drama and the visual arts all came together. This happened in 1989. Since then, it's been a long road of educating myself in every possible way.
I've picked up quite a few yellow cards in the last few years - a few reds, too. That was the case as a youth player as it is now. But I don't see it as a problem. That's how I play. If you take that away, then I wouldn't be where I am now. So I don't think the yellow cards or the red cards are too big of an issue.
I end up talking about really mundane things with my fans, and then they're kind of like, 'This is boring. I want to go talk to somebody else.' I think I bore my fans to death by over-talking to them.
My brother and I have been able to get on and have been very lucky to do things with our family that other people wouldn't have been able to do. But then again, we've also been able to live a normal life as well.
I was working two landscaping jobs; I was recording songs in the spare bedroom. I would get up at 4 A.M., go to work, get back at 6 P.M., have nap, then start recording, just go until I fell asleep.
If you don't enjoy it, then putting in the long hours is going to take their toll. If you don't enjoy it, then putting in the long hours is going to take their toll.
I'd much rather eat exactly what I want, and then burn it off, than diet.
The initial research will be very indiscriminate. I do a lot of reading, buy a stack of books and read and digest them, and then I start doing phone interviews and archival research and then the travelling.
I find cooking very sensual. I love getting in there with my hands instead of utensils. With all of the textures and everything, it's very erotic. Also the time it takes to prepare, and the anticipation and the buildup, you know. Then finally, you get to eat.
There are people that very strongly identify themselves as gay and then lesbian, and then I think there are a lot of people who are kind of some percentage or some version of that.
Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below.
Up till now I wrote the songs on my acoustic guitar alone with the Lord. Then I would take the song and share it with my family and then we all would figure out instrumentation together.
It helps if you really enjoy your jobs. If you don't, then just think about the money.
It seems to me that any sensible person must see that violence does not change the world and if it does, then only temporarily.
You then get into a period a few years ago, where a lot of external factors that we didn't have anything to do with did hit, and some of them at the same time... devaluations, weak economies, you name it, in various parts of the world.
If it's a good story, then everybody is trying to tell it, everybody is better for it, and it's just more fun.
I went to a rare live Van Dyke show and met him there. And then he came to a show of mine and we spoke back stage. The third time was at Brian Wilson's birthday party.
I ran five miles today. Then, finally, I said, 'Here, lady... take your purse.'
The years keep going by and you realize, Wow. Doing these records is such a process: going on tour for a year and a half, then you get home and you want to do other things.
When I won the first Grammy, there was no other feeling like that feeling. It just made me feel like I came so far, like that was just a dream a few years before that, and then it was happening right then.
I used to get nervous, you know if my parents would come watch. And then I would get nervous if my friends came and watched. Today it's not a problem anymore actually, because now I enjoy it. I see that they, you know, respect me immensely, and I try to put on a good show and show that I can still play very good tennis.
Beyonce has very clear ideas - she knows exactly what she wants. The thing which she then also has over other celebrities is that she has an amazing voice. She's incredibly talented, and she's an amazing dancer - she's complete. Few are like Beyonce.
If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists.
I went to dance classes from 9 in the morning until 1, then to school from 3 to 10 at night, always under the threat that if I failed a single course I could forget about dancing.
