There's only a couple times when fame is ever helpful. Sometimes you can get into a restaurant where the kitchen is just closing. Sometimes you can avoid a traffic violation. But the only time it really matters is in the emergency room with your kids. That's when you want to be noticed, because it's very easy to get forgotten in an ER.
It's important to celebrate your failures as much as your successes. If you celebrate your failures really well, and if you get to the motto and say, 'Wow, I failed, I tried, I was wrong, I learned something,' then you realize you have no fear, and when your fear goes away, you can move the world.
A guy's who has all the money he needs and never faced any hard times, he won't have any character. But when you've had it tough and you've had it rough and you thought you were at the end of the rope and you work your way out of it, that's the way you build character.
I could never sit down and say: I'm going to do an out-and-out comedy, just to prove to people I can. You've just got to do what you do. Just listen to your soul and do your art and do it for the right reasons, and then you can't fail.
What is taught in schools generally in the West Indies is that if something is your thing, it's better than anybody else's because it's yours. It's extremely provincial and also damaging. You prevent people from learning things. The biggest absurdity would be, 'Don't read Shakespeare because he was white.'
You have to put your kids first no matter what; that's how I feel.
I think it's all about the people who listen to your music, and loving playing and writing. Once you've got those two, and they're your main two priorities, then radio and TV and all the other stuff that comes with it will come. But that's not the be-all end-all.
I don't believe in publicity before a film is completed. It costs you money and wastes your energy, and you're inflating your balloon before you have a balloon.
If you want to get your point across, you gotta cuss.
To outsource your memory to machines - which is what many of us do with regard to our use of search engines - seems to me to be fairly antithetical to the basic qualities of Jewish life that have kept the Jews alive for so long.
You are defined by who you are, by your choices in life, in all regards, not just in doing movies.
With acting, you can find a way to make it interesting for yourself, if nobody else - even on big-budget films. But you're very much on your own.
When you play soccer, most of the time you got to get the ball moving, but once you get into that attacking third you gotta' be creative, you gotta' let your talent take over.
There's a lot of rage in my head. I like the friction that means there is nothing relaxing about writing a poem. I can't afford to relax in any area of life. You have to keep your senses awake to all the complacency that kicks in - particularly for the English.
I was given away. If your mother gives you away, you think everybody who comes into your life is going to give you away.
With parody, you're referencing and sending up a particular genre, and mostly your material is going to be taken out of that genre.
I was quite fearless as a kid. But I've had to realize I'm not invincible. That's what breaking your back does. It makes you grow up and reassess life.
I grew up with the media circus. My whole life. My parents were very calm about the photographers, the fans, and all that. But I understood right away that I hadn't done anything to deserve that attention. No matter what happens, it will be there. I didn't choose it. You just can't take that too seriously. You need to live your life. And stay calm.
It's actually very important to put a little foundation up into your hairline, or else it looks like your face is not yours - like someone just Photoshopped it on!
It would be fantastic to spend your whole life trying to pursue something and then finally, at the last moment, you achieve it. You know, instead of getting it in the middle of the pursuit and spending the second half giving it meaning.
If you're entering a room for the first time, do it the way you would in life - look around; see how they have the furniture arranged. If your character is meeting another character for the first time, meet them the way you would in life.
Anybody who can afford a box of business cards can afford a Web site. Any company with an 800 number can move its services to the Web for peanuts by comparison. The extreme case of corporate promotion is to strip away all other aspects of your business and sell goods or services via the Net alone, as amazon.com has done with books.
I think that fame only goes to your head if you are not a real artist. If you are a real artist and a good person who loves what they are doing, you are going to be the same person.
When you procrastinate, you're more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns.
The idea of a piece of literature as a vessel that could contain your life and lived after you had died and been forgotten struck me as akin to artificial intelligence.
Put your consumers in focus, and listen to what they're actually saying, not what they tell you.
If I make a bogey or three putt I'm on fire inside. But it's not like you're going to play any better slamming your club or getting angry. So you might as well just keep it in. People say I'm pretty calm, but I do make mistakes and I do get angry, but I try and not show it.
One of the strangest things that used to happen at half time was that you'd come in, and you would have to sit down and be quiet. Get your drink, your energy bars or whatever, and sit down.
If you're a parent, love your children. If you're married, honor your spouse instead of looking on the Internet for love in all the wrong places. I'm talking about real relationships, not false intimacies.
My question about luging is, How do you get into the luge community to begin with? Is it one day like, 'Mom, Dad, I really want to luge.' And your parents are like: 'O.K., I'll quit my job. We'll move to an Alpine community.'
Ideally, really ideally, you want to get to a place where you can have creative control over the material you do - choices, at least, anyway. And you want your choice of script and role. But do you really want your life to revolve around trying to maintain your privacy?
Get the screens out of your room and surround yourself with books.
There's nothing worse than bad scatting, except maybe bad mouth trumpet. Mouth trumpet may sound like a trumpet, but it's really more like playing a kazoo. The instant you do your solo, the audience has a bit of a chuckle.
It's better to do one thing at a time and give your full concentration.
To have a natural, healthy glow, you need to spend as much time as you can outside - if you stay locked up in an office, it can take a toll on your mind and body.
When you're a little kid, you are small, your life is small - and you're terrifically aware of that. But when you read, you can ride Arabian horses across the desert, you can be a dogsledder.
