When I went around promoting 'Crumb,' there would be days I'd wake up in, like, Houston or Cleveland, and I'd step outside the hotel and get no idea where I was. It all looks the same: one big corporate, consumer theme park. It's all, 'Here's the Starbucks, and here's the Gap, and we'll go over to Banana Republic and the Cineplex.'
Some years ago, I was invited to speak in Houston, Texas. They said I was a founder of 'postmodern theatre'. So I said to my office, 'This is ridiculous for me to go and speak about postmodern theatre when I don't know what it means, but... they're paying me a lot of money, so I'll go.'
I was raised on gospel. I remember hip-hop and rock music were secular, so basically, for my first ten years living in Detroit, I was on gospel. But when I moved to Houston, that's when I got to open up my musical horizons.
When I was a kid, I went from ground zero to Pluto. The first place I played was the Houston Astrodome.
When I first started out in Houston, it was theater or bust. And I loved it. I still love it. And then I went to undergraduate and graduate school for acting.
What I don't like - and I'm concerned about - as a Houstonian is that the SEC is starting to own Houston... There's more talk about the SEC than there is the Big 12.
I could remember thinking when I met him, 'Wow, that's Andy Sanders from Houston. He's really good.' And he tells me he said, 'Wow, that's Jimmy Walker. He hits it really far.'
Houston's one of the most diverse urban areas in the entire country, and most people here are really proud of that.
Whether looking at pop music, hip-hop or R&B, it's rare to find an artist who hasn't been touched or affected by the power and soul of gospel music. In fact, many of today's popular artists such as Whitney Houston, John Legend, and Katy Perry started their careers in the church choir.
I first arrived in New York in 1979. I was 19 and I was going to University in Houston, Texas, and I decided that I knew what I wanted to do and it was time to go and do it. I literally ran away from college.
I'd always sing 'Greatest Love of All' by Whitney Houston. I just want to make clear, though, you know those people on 'Star Search' who are the little 7-year-olds that sound like Christina Aguilera? That wasn't me.
I absolutely do not think it's a foregone conclusion that we're going to lose our coach. Tom Herman loves the University of Houston. He's happy to be coaching at the University of Houston, and I think there are only a few places Tom Herman would even consider.
When Destiny's Child released their first record, I don't think I even noticed. I was still at school, and I had my own life in Houston.
I've been reading 'The Sisterhood,' and I love the author Bobbie Houston and what she's about. It's the whole idea of women celebrating each other's wins and journeying through life together.
I think the problems with being older come when your body cannot do what your mind wants. Then, Houston, we have a problem.
When I was about 12 years old back in Houston, my Dad used to take us to the driving range.
I'm still an English professor at Rice University here in Houston. They've been very generous in letting me on a very long leash to just work on 'The Passage' and its sequels.
I just don't understand the Big 12 not wanting to own Houston, Texas, which is soon to be the third-largest populous in the United States. To me, it's a no-brainer. I'm just kind of disappointed and shocked it's not an automatic.
On one hand, I can say, you know, I had many family members - I had many people in my extended family who left right after Katrina, who relocated to different cities, right? Houston, Atlanta. Right? Most of them have come back.
My introduction of Whitney was that if there's going to be one performer for the next generation who combined the beauty and lyric phrasing of a Lena Horne with those Gospel fiery roots of an Aretha Franklin, it would be Whitney Houston.
Growing up in Houston, the music scene is super boring.
I have tested my nerve by reaching a little too closely toward a lengthy alligator on the Gulf Coast and a saucer-sized tarantula in a Houston car park.
I'm from Houston. I think I was thirty-seven before I ever set foot in Dallas, and that was just in the airport. So I've never really been there. Dad grew up in Port Arthur, Texas and all I can ever get out of him is, 'I wanted my first son to be named Dallas.'
I used to listen to a lot of music in my studio - all the time. But as far as the music that interplays with my work, what I've done and still do is keep a lyric book and song title. The material typically comes from Eartha Kitt, Betty Davis, Donna Summer, Whitney Houston.