AOL Instant Messenger was a big thing back in the day, where girls would get on it and make fun of me. There was a certain girl, and she wanted to make me feel bad.
Thankfully, I was able to go to Marquette University and get my education, a Catholic education, so I could please my family, because I think they wanted me to be a priest.
I got out of the music industry many years ago. I had a charlatan for a producer who I wanted nothing to do with. He's dead now, so I guess I can't beat that horse any more. It left a very bad taste in my mouth, so I just went on about my business doing what I do and not involving myself with record companies, except for distribution.
A teenager usually wants to try to get people to notice him in some way, to feel like someone gives a damn. Me, all that attention, I just wanted to fade into the background. Be invisible. Disappear.
I didn't want to be an accountant; I found myself being a banker, which was a bit different. I went to university, and I was going to do a Ph.D. in the States, but I didn't get the funding for it, so I had two years where I had a bit of a wobble and didn't really know what I wanted to do, and I ended up working as a banker.
It wasn't like I wanted to be the next Marc Andreessen, but it would be cool to be in the same place.
I always knew I had something to say even when nobody else wanted to listen.
When I first set out to do it, I wanted to be a working actor, and now it seems like it's superseded even my dreams.
I've always known that I wanted to be different. I wanted to stand out, so my gear is very elaborate, very blingy, very loud, because I want people to notice me, want to look like me. The Boss necklace, the ring. I want everything big.
I made four comedies, and all did well, but I always wanted to do an action film. When I saw 'Singham,' I thought this was the right film. Many stopped me, saying, 'You are doing so well in comedy, why do you want to make this film?'
I was offered Fagin-type roles, but I wanted to do new things. I could have worked in America, but there was a recession in the British film industry, and I wanted to work in England. I've no regrets.
I always knew who I was, but everyone else wanted to me to be their 'idea' of the 'right' artist. At times, I even believed them.
I wanted to tell the story of Luong Ung, who's a dear friend of mine.
I always wanted to be a star.
I had the most magical childhood, running free and going anywhere I wanted to in my head.
That seemed to be the case with most of the teams based in the smaller towns - the fans were more rabid, and they wanted to literally kill the opposition.
I said to myself I've got to go up there and do it because the New York Mets keep winning every day. The game was on the line and I wanted to go out there and come through for my team. That win tonight means a lot for us.
I started out a die-hard New Yorker but really grew to love working in Los Angeles. Even though I originally wanted to do theater, TV presented more opportunities for me, which led me out west.
Look at what caused people to make a lot of money and you will see that usually it is in proportion to their production of what the society wanted.
Every job I've had since 'Smallville' has wanted me to have red hair, so I have to thank 'Smallville' for that. But, just the fact that it was so different was appealing to me. As an actor, you want to be able to play a lot of different things.
I think of Pope Gregory the Great. He wanted the cloister. He wanted to pray and study, and yet he was thrust into this administrative job, and he submitted to that. And in that submission, he became a great leader. You could say that the only person who is safe to lead is the person who is free to submit.
'Star Wars' came out when I was seven. It was so different from anything else, like peeking into the land of Oz. All you wanted to do was see it again and go back and see more of it. That feeling is not easy to reproduce.
For me, becoming a celebrity was like being in the eye of a hurricane. Suddenly, I was an international cover girl. Everybody was lapping up my Hemingwayness. They wanted to rub elbows with me or brush up against me.
I've always been inspired by women, and my mission was to inspire women. I always wanted to become a certain kind of woman, and I became that woman through fashion. It was a dialogue. I would see that the wrap dress made those women confident, and made them act with confidence.
With 'Carrie,' I did, like, seven auditions. I'd never done a movie, so they wanted to make sure I wasn't going to ruin it. I don't blame them.
When you hit 30, it's that time of self-reflection. Some people are a success. Some people feel like they haven't achieved what they wanted to. Some people are married, some have kids, some are still single.
I wanted to play in a band, and I wanted to do music for a living, and that's what I dedicated my life to.
I feel blessed: having a family is something that I've always wanted. Having a second child is the realization of a dream come true.
I always wanted to be in a boy band since I was a kid.
In the case of 'Shape Of Water,' I want it to feel like a song. I wanted people to come out of the movie humming the movie.
The 'Saw' sequels went in a direction I wouldn't have gone in. With 'Insidious 2,' I wanted to push a potential franchise in the direction I thought it should go in.
When I was 17, I studied at RADA in London for the summer. I wanted to live abroad and to pursue drama, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. I thought I may as well throw myself in at the deep end. My first big role is in 'Starlet.'
I wanted to write stories I wanted to read, that I and my friends related to.
Roadrunner wanted to make Born in the Flood the next Nickelback, but I didn't want to be that. I didn't want to be a huge rock star playing songs I didn't like. I didn't want to be stuck playing 'Anthem,' the song everybody liked but I didn't want to put on the record, for the next five years.
I really wanted to be a cartoonist, and I was in 4th or 5th grade and I would bring my drawings in, and I'd look around, and everyone could draw better than me. Everyone. My drawings were just awful. So that's why I had to write.
When I wanted to go away to college in Toronto, my dad said, 'You can't go.' When I got to Toronto, I bought a couch, and my dad cried for the whole weekend because, as my mum told me, 'Now you have furniture; he knows you are never coming back.'
