I was born and grew up in Phoenix, and I left there when I was 17 to go to Interlochen Arts Academy - a boarding school in Michigan - for a year, and then I went to college for a year at The Boston Conservatory and landed the 'Spring Awakening' tour midway through my freshman year, which was pretty cool.
I grew up in the 1960s in Memphis, and my father was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union. I was born three years before Martin Luther King was killed, and I think that history of civil action was something that I had in my blood.
Sometimes the kids come up with better endings than the real story.
I was a wild child. It's nice, though, now to have grown up and be normal and domestic. I've become very traditional. Conservative, worldly and very wise but fun.
I really saw my mom advocate on my behalf and really say, 'Hey, you're good enough.' It was from her that I learned that just because something hasn't been done before, it doesn't mean it can't be done now. You have to speak up, and you've got to assert yourself because it takes somebody to be the first one to make it happen.
The problem is, I think, that so many of us pray as if we are ordering groceries. We pick up the telephone and say, 'Is this the right place to place my order?' and we proceed right to dictating our order. When we have then ended that list, we hang up.
I gave up soccer. But I don't think I can ever stop running.
I tell people all the time, 'Don't give up.' We get almost to our blessing, whether you believe spiritually in God or in a good force and an evil force. We get almost to our blessing, and we quit. Don't stop.
Although the rugby league fraternity probably don't like it, the rugby union fraternity probably doesn't like it, it's cool for sportsmen, for young kids coming up, to know that there's not just that one door.
I love 'Bringing Up Baby.' Anything that Katharine Hepburn's in. I'm committed to the Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn era of filmmaking.
There's a difference between standing up and telling people what you're planning to do and standing up and going and accomplishing something.
I have no problem being mainstream. I grew up in the '90s when the mainstream was amazing.
If you go out there and start making noise and making sales - people will find you. Sales cure all. You can talk about how great your business plan is and how well you are going to do. You can make up your own opinions, but you cannot make up your own facts. Sales cure all.
When you're not on the payroll, and you want to continue the Beverly Wilshire lifestyle, but you're only geared for a Holiday Inn existence, things are gonna catch up to you.
Trust your landmark and run through the smoke. It's going to open up eventually.
Larger-than-life characters make up about .01 percent of the world's population.
When you pick up a novel from the bed side table, you put down your own life at the same time and you become another person for the duration.
The Pentagon is actually a 10-story building, five up and five down.
People will bring up all kinds of masala, but all that matters to me are my fans. They are my strength. I am overwhelmed by their support and love. It just pays off for all the hard work you put in.
I grew up in the prolonged survival of the great age of the horse, with harness and saddle and sleigh bells and horse pictures, not as antiques but the facts of our lives.
I wanted to be an Olympic swimmer when I was growing up.
Acting has been really good me. You end up in some wild places, and I love adventure.
In the time when my mother began standing up against prejudice and racism, the vast majority of white Americans rarely thought about civil rights.
My individual power is limited. I want to use my high-profile way to wake people up to take action together to do good things. I can only awake them with my performance art and creativity.
Many a man is saved from being a thief by finding everything locked up.
In general, for me, a big thing in my life has been just sort of learning what true self-esteem is and what true positive self-image is. And being a dancer, and growing up in that world, you're so focused on yourself, and you're so focused on achieving goals, on finding perfection, and working on your craft.
When you are constantly around other professionals, you end up learning and growing.
I think with me and the type of music that I'm trying to make, it's always going be soulful because I grew up listening to different types and variations of soulful melodies and jazz, but experimenting with different types of stylistic souls.
Journalists told me that a talk show wouldn't work. Some told me I was going to get canceled before my first season was up.
I just wanted to see China with my own eyes. I wanted to see whether North Korea was the best country in the world or China was the best. I grew up believing that China was much worse than North Kore, because that's what the regime told us.
I picked up yoga. I tried to do cooking a little bit. I almost burned my house down, but it's all good. So I just stuck to yoga.
I've always strived to keep mixing it up, keep doing different things, and work in all different parts of our business.
You may have heard the world is made up of atoms and molecules, but it's really made up of stories. When you sit with an individual that's been here, you can give quantitative data a qualitative overlay.
I was lucky enough to grow up in an era when radio was less formatted. It was really special. You could hear a jazz song then a pop song then a show tune then some jazz. Basically, whatever the DJ felt like playing, he would play. He was educating you and exposing you to things you would never hear otherwise.
My first memories of music were country music and Ronnie Milsap. Where I grew up, it was what you listened to. And anything else, you were somewhat out of place.
What's great about working with EPIX is that we have unparalleled access to the top movie talent and do exclusive 1:1 sit-down interviews with the actors, sometimes before anyone else does. With 'The Hunger Games,' we had our own studio set up and did 1:1s with Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Lenny Kravitz, etc.
