My father's an opera nut, and my stepmother used to work at the Metropolitan Opera, so I had a lot of opera immersion. I like the grandness and pretention of it.
I played the piano as a boy for six years, from the time I was six to 12 years old. My piano lessons ended when my father died because our family had no more money. I used to have a mestiza teacher. She'd come once a week to teach me piano lessons, and she'd bribe me each time with an apple; otherwise, I wouldn't play.
This is rather different from the receptions I used to get fifty years ago. They threw things at me then but they were not roses.
My father had this mythological sense of the old New York, and he used to tell me stories about these old gangs, particularly the Forty Thieves in the Fourth Ward.
People used to always ask, and I would say I wanted to be an actress. When they would ask why, I would say because my mother has so much fun.
I was a bed wetter till very late. My mom used to hang my sheets out the window to dry, and I'd have to run home from school in order to beat the other kids to my house so they wouldn't see them.
The polls are just being used as another tool of voter suppression. The polls are an attempt to not reflect public opinion, but to shape it. Yours. They want to depress the heck out of you.
We used to have a crew of three on board the space station and even at one time a crew of two people, so it's something we can adjust to.
Initially, women only had to portray married wife roles on TV, but now there are show that are offering other roles to portray for women. Earlier, all drama used to revolve only around married women, which is not the case now. Even the male actors have a good opportunity for better roles now.
I used to be a writer with superstitions worthy of a professional baseball player: I needed a certain desk chair and a certain armchair and a certain desk arrangement, and I could only get really useful work done between 8 P.M. and 3 A.M. Then I started to move, and I couldn't bring my chairs with me.
I understand that I have a certain look that can be used to my advantage. I know the power of that when I walk into a room and talk to people, and I can use it as an advertising tool. Now I am actually selling me, my face, my thoughts. So I am my guy.
Bell Biv Devoe, back in the day, we used to look up to them. They had incredible style back then, so we wanted to be like them.
Chick flick is not a term used to praise a movie. Nobody says 'it's a great chick flick.' It's a way of being derisive. I'm not clear why it's ok to do it.
And all the zig-zags and lines in my hair? I used to do that myself. I just thought it was cool that you could actually do that with your hair.
I used to always prefer to text, and in fact got indignant when people called. This was totally irrational.
The record labels used to spend money on advertising, and social media has replaced that entirely - it's putting magazines out of business. It's put big companies into completely reinventing their strategies.
I literally can't get anywhere now without the map on my phone. I used to use an A-Z when I first came to London, and now I really struggle because there's no dot to show where I am. And I think that part of my brain doesn't work any more.
I'm a hands-on mum and I'm lucky to be able to be that. I can remember the things my mum used to do with me and that time together is so important.
People are used to juggling multiple jobs and multiple responsibilities and multiple things on the home front, and sometimes you get a day off to read, and you just want a book that feels complete and that you can get through it on a rainy day on the couch.
I used to teach acting in a maximum security men's prison. I worked with guys with the most dysfunctional behavior problems. I probably learned more there than from my prestigious theater degree.
I used to buy records in high school. Mainly dancehall: Super Cat, Buju Banton.
I've always thought of myself as being extremely lucky. The idea is to keep that luck going. Headlining the Stanley was a real kick. I think it's the type of thing I could get used to.
I used to speak Algerian, but I'd lost nearly everything.
My brother was an improviser. He's now a lobbyist, but he used to perform improv in the city when he was in high school, and one of the funniest guys I know to this day.
