Being a teenager, I would think they were real strict, and I would get upset, but I'm glad they were like that. They didn't let us do whatever we wanted. We weren't allowed to date until we were, like, juniors in high school.
December used to be very difficult for me. For many years, I fought the transition to the new year, was generally exhausted at the end of the year, and just wanted to hide. I described myself as a 'cranky Jewish kid who felt left out by Christmas.'
I wanted to be that quirky girl who writes funny songs that still have meaning.
I always told the people at Cal Arts that if they wanted me to do Jazz studies, first of all, there couldn't be a big band within 500 miles and that I could do what I wanted to do. And they said I could.
I always wanted to sound like a man, like Jeff Buckley or Tom Waits.
But I also wanted to give them an intelligent emotional journey, without having to suspend reality - to be able to look at those characters and see reasons for the relationships and why what happens happens.
I have the cliche 'struggling actor' story. I was waiting tables in New York, went out to L.A. soon after graduation to get some jobs, but it didn't work out. I wanted to cut my teeth in professional theater, so I came back to New York. It made my journey a longer one, but I really wanted to excel in the theater.
I didn't necessarily have a total idea when I was writing the movie of where everything was going. I just wanted to have really realistic dialogue and write like people I knew talked. I tried to keep it very real.
A sign that negotiations were handled well on both sides is that everybody probably feels a little bit like they didn't get what they wanted.
At first, I didn't know what an actor was. I thought it was an acrobat. I saw acrobats at the circus, and I thought that was interesting. In my head, that was what I imagined I wanted to be when I grew up. Then I realized what an actor was, and I've gravitated to it ever since.
I never considered acting while growing up. I just knew I didn't want to go into the saloon business: I wanted to get away from Kenosha. And once I left, never, ever did it cross my mind to go back. I went to college and thought I'd study law.
The Nisour Square shooting is a signature point in the Iraq war, one that inflamed anti-American sentiment abroad and contributed to the impression that Americans were reckless and unaccountable. The Iraqi government wanted to prosecute the security contractors in Iraq, but the American government refused to allow it.
I went to college and did advanced electronical engineering, not really knowing what I wanted to do. It bored me to death, so I dropped out.
When I did 'Bumble-ardy,' I was so intensely aware of death. Eugene, my friend and partner, was dying here in the house when I did 'Bumble-ardy'. I did 'Bumble-ardy' to save myself. I did not want to die with him. I wanted to live, as any human being does.
I'd always really wanted to act; but the modelling contracts came more easily.
A girl came up to me in a bar and said she wanted to be my apple pie. I wish I'd said something cool, but I was stunned.
I always loved to sing and was very, very loud. I wanted to be a movie star, like Judy Garland.
When I started to write 'Crazy Thing Called Love,' I wanted a conflict that would not only bring Billy and Maddy together in terms of proximity and give them a common goal but that would also drive a wedge between them. And nothing fit the bill quite like the arrival of some children.
When I was very young I wanted to be a professional horseback rider. Then I wanted to be a pop singer. Then I wanted to be a psychiatrist. Then I wanted to be a movie director.
When I was growing up, I wanted to be my half-sister Lucy. She was 14 years older than me and was impossibly glamorous. I grew up in awe of her.
I wanted to live in a house. I wanted to have a place where I could record at home - all of these things I'd wanted to do for years.
I wanted to prove I was the best fighter in the world.
When I became a director, I wanted to convince a very reluctant Sidney into allowing me to go on the journey of his life. Sidney had gone ahead of every other African American actor.
'Take Me Apart' doesn't feel cohesive in a singular way but in a varied way. You can fixate on individual songs, and there are references from all over the place: Anita Baker to Bjork. I wanted to show all the facets of myself.
My company is an extension of me, so when I designed my stores I wanted people to feel that they were in my home.
Acting is just something I always knew I wanted to do - acting and writing.
My entertainment was going to the local dollar movie theatre on the weekend, where I watched old black and white movies. If you wanted current movies, you had to drive to the big city.
It's never gone so far as me wishing I'd never done 'Quadrophenia,' but there was a time when I wouldn't talk about it because I wanted people to be interested in me for other things as well.
To look for some kind of insight or meaning in pop songs is not really - well there's plenty of other places where you should probably look first before you start looking for it in a pop song. I guess it was just because I was really into music as a child, and I wanted it to say more. It was the thing, wasn't it? And now it isn't.
Maybe it's because I was an only child, but I've always wanted kids.
As a kid, I read 'Peter Pan,' and I really wanted to be him.
I wanted to be a doctor in sports medicine; I was into sailing and all that sort of thing.
There are places that I've always wanted to go. First I went to Africa, and when I was there I realized there were places in Africa I really to wanted to visit: The Congo, West Africa, Mombassa. I wanted to see the deep, dark, outlandish places.
My mum was never strict. I was allowed to go out to clubs underage, watch TV, listen to whatever music I wanted to, and that made me not rebel. I have never touched a drug in my life.
The only other things, and again these things are hearsay, is that he could be pretty rough on directors, because he knew exactly the way he wanted to play the part. And he did so.
I decided I was sick of trying to figure out what everybody else wanted, and I should just decide what I want, and be honest, and not spend all my time guessing.
