I prayed, thanking God, for making it all possible for me, because I knew where I came from.
I was lucky to get into drama school and become a professional actor. No-one ever mentioned the colour of my skin. It's only when I came out of RADA - the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art - that I suddenly realised people started to refer to me as a black actor.
When I came out of the military, I had a club in Memphis and I started using the The Bar Kays as my club band. They were still only in the middle school - but I'd take them on the road with me on the weekends, sometimes.
The very best hotel I've stayed in is the Intercontinental on Park Lane. We went there for the Chelsea Flower Show a few years ago, and it was sheer luxury. Everybody had a smile on their face. I came home and changed all my pillows because the hotel ones were so beautiful.
When I came into the business, things changed a lot, and my life was in a real state of flux.
I was always an avid reader of books. My vocabulary, my English are all thanks to that reading habit. Reading keeps me grounded. I came from a very middle class family - poor, in fact.
I'm not sure I would make a direct connection between having press attention as a young person and being interested in the media as an older person. I came to it more organically, coming from a family of Irish Catholic storytellers. Storytelling is a pastime and important part of my family's history and culture.
Early in my songwriting career, when I was learning a lot about writing songs, I'd force myself to sit down until I came up with something.
I came to running late. It was something I had always wanted to do, but I always end up getting hurt. It didn't occur to me that I could actually slow down and walk a little bit!
I came from a real working-class show business family.
If I would make a song dedicated to any woman, it would have to be my mom because, you know, she's been there since I came out of her. She would have to be the one... my mom or my daughter.
Why I came here, I know not; where I shall go it is useless to inquire - in the midst of myriads of the living and the dead worlds, stars, systems, infinity, why should I be anxious about an atom?
None of our family businesses were focused on technology. It was '93 when I came out of law school, and the Internet was taking hold. So I started New World Ventures.
I've always been a guy who's pretty supportive, its just my nature, so I came in to the situation with the attitude that I wanted to support Johnny and make it work.
I became kind of a drop-out in science after I came back to America. I wanted to photograph.
When I came to Congress, I came to bring what I thought was a real-world business perspective to government because, in the business world, I spent over 20 years in the high-tech industry, but it certainly was not unique.
I came to L.A. with confidence in my craft, and I was very offended when I didn't get a part. It took me awhile to understand that it is not always about your acting.
In this business, if you take too long, the landscape changes. So the opportunities that were there when I decided to take a break weren't there when I came back. It's like, 'Wait a second - what happened here?' It was a real learning experience. I've paid my dues, I will tell you that.
I came very close to quitting my job for the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. I seriously considered packing up my office and heading home to Colorado.
I came into the industry at a time when there weren't a lot of choices to what you could do.
I came back from university thinking I knew all about politics and racism, not knowing my dad had been one of the youngest-serving Labour councillors in the town and had refused to work in South Africa years ago because of the situation there. And he's never mentioned it - you just find out. That's a real man to me. A sleeping lion.
For some strange reason, my gay life didn't get easier when I came out. Quite the opposite happened, really.
My first year in baseball, there were only one or two reporters. My second year, I got to the Triple-A playoffs, there were four or five. When I came up in 1984, I never saw so many people.
I came up through the theater. I came out of drama college and started working in the professional theater.
When I came into my adulthood, I recognized how fortunate I was to be doing what I loved to do.
When you find a song that you love, you just have to do it - why would I try to match it? When I wrote more of the songs in the '90s - 'Nick of Time' and other songs I was surprised I came up with - it was because nobody else was saying what I wanted to say.
It was implanted in me that I came from a different class - an elevated class. I was cushioned by servants. I don't remember doing anything for myself. I only played and went to school.
When I came into television, the serials were all women-centric, while the men had to stand around like furniture. I wasn't willing to be a prop in serials. To my good fortune, I got serials where I was a central character.
I came out the box and for seven years I had a huge career. And then it's done, it's dumped. But I ain't gone, and I refuse to be gone.
When I came back I had to realize that IC was not in a very good shape - all the much money that we had because of the huge Ideal success, was gone. I was very upset.
In 1940 I came across a record by Jimmy Yancey. I can't say how important that record is. From then on, all I wanted to do was play the blues.
I came from nothing. I came from the projects and welfare and ended up a millionaire with no frame of reference. I was bound to hit a wall sooner or later.
I came from a family where joining a union was the expected thing to do. I've always believed that the relationship between an employer and an individual worker is fundamentally unequal.
Then I came up with this crazy idea just to walk out on the stage with no band at all and just start singing whatever came to mind. I actually fought the idea for a while because it seemed almost too radical, but it became obvious what I was supposed to be doing.
When I was 16, I definitely burned a couple of bridges by saying, 'I won't do this!' I was not diplomatic about it. I came to a fitting and was like, 'I don't wear fur; cancel this show!'
I came from the South with a mother who was hard working, so I love going to work every day.
