What could make my life better? Oh, if I could only find that magic bottle that lets you never have to sleep. I have so much stuff I wanna do, but... That six or seven hours you have to be in bed with your eyes closed. What a waste!
The song that makes me the happiest when someone sings it is Cher's 'If I Could Turn Back Time.'
If I could have drawn a cat yelling for lasagna every day for 15 years and have them pay me $30 million to do so, I would have.
When I read 'Greenberg,' I had a really strong sense if I could be any kind of writer I wanted to be, I'd be this kind of writer. And I felt like, even in my experiences, what writing I had done, even on a small scale, when it was good, it shared some quality with it.
Parenting is the hardest thing I have ever done. I tried to find the balance between the strict, traditional Chinese way I was raised, which I think can be too harsh, and what I see as a tendency in the West to be too permissive and indulgent. If I could do it all again, I would, with some adjustments.
If I could go back in time and tell my younger self that eventually that I'd become very successful writing Dune books after Frank Herbert's death, I would have laughed myself silly, I think, at how strange that prospect would be.
I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.
I was always too mature for my age - and not very happy. I had no young friends. I wish I could go back to those days. If I could only live it all again, how I would play and enjoy other girls. What a fool I was.
I thought that if I could speed up the production of animation, I could make a big business out of recreating the amazing images of the news because what we get on TV is always the last bit of image.
If I could give my younger self one piece of advice, I would say, 'Lose weight.'
I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty.
I used to run away to New York from Baltimore all the time. I would get on the Greyhound bus and tell my parents I was going to some sorority weekend... I'd even make up fake permission slips, come to New York, and just ask people on the street if I could stay with them and go see midnight movies.
I thought if I could create a convincing cat I could say and do anything I wanted on the human condition.
I'm just trying to pass Tim Duncan in championships if I can one day. That's my motivation; that's what I strive for. Tim is one of the greatest players who has ever played, so if I could get close or reach that plateau and have my name on that list.
I hate American simplicity. I glory in the piling up of complications of every sort. If I could pronounce the name James in any different or more elaborate way I should be in favor of doing it.
I knew that if I could put a table in a room with not much light and a couple of chairs, I could have a real conversation. And I know that people... like to eavesdrop on a conversation.
If I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months.
Children up to the age of seven are like sponges. They look up to adults and copy what they do. So I thought if I could create a positive role model - a superhero, if you like - who moves around and has a balanced lifestyle - then they would be motivated to move more.
If I could live my life all over I'd do everything the same; the film in my camera would remain the same; there's no way lord, to leave this love behind.
If I could set a world record, it would be that I have 150 business partners, all with thriving businesses of their own that started with nothing and I made the difference to make them all billionaires.
I would honestly be elated if I could wave a magic wand and eradicate my back catalog and then have a fresh crack at some of those ideas.
If I could bring 'The Tunnel' to life, I'd like to do it like that.
E-mail is far more convenient than the telephone, as far as I'm concerned. I would throw my phone away if I could get away with it.
If I could rap, that would be a sensation, but I can't, you see, I'm just a Caucasian.
I want to be able to speak every language. If I could have any talent and I get to choose it, and be naturally gifted and speak every language. It's not going to happen, but it sure would be nice. It's a good wish.
I would like to be Pope if I could.
I, over the years, have always felt more comfortable if I could go into a projection room and look at a film and not really know what to expect. If you read the script first, you form all kinds of preconceptions about how things look, what the location's like, what the actors are like.
On my job I end up jumping out of planes. Last week I got in an 18-wheeler and drove down a runway onto a skid track. The week before that they put me in a car and sunk me to the bottom of a lake to see if I could escape without an oxygen tank.
So now, thirty years, forty years later, I mean, I could find a whole orchestra of a thousand to put these things together in New York City alone. In those days, if I could scrape up twenty musicians to do this it was something extraordinary.
I think if I could be any superhero, it'd probably be my mom... but I don't think I'd look too good in high heels, so it's not gonna happen.
I spent two years living in London - I'd have stayed for ever if I could have got a work visa. It was there I started collecting vinyl and fell in love with the sounds of the 1970s.
In my family, I was loved, but only if I would fight this gay thing and not let it take over me. I would be loved unconditionally if I could be cured of my 'sickness,' but it certainly would not be OK if I couldn't.
My goal at every tournament is to finish top 18. At the end of the year if I could finish every tournament top 18, that would be pretty good.
So in my sophomore year, I took a senior anatomy class. I thought anatomy - being the thing that I should be most interested in - and if I could hack, as we called it, a senior class, I would continue. I didn't hack the senior class.
I love to eat. If I could eat everything in the world and still be healthy or wouldn't catch a heart attack or stroke, I'd eat everything. I just can't. So I got to watch my health and take care of my family.
People asked if I could have played the Terminator. Are you kidding? Not a chance, I never could have played the Terminator.
