I know about lots of things that have nothing to do with being Asian, that you would never guess from looking at me. I know all about musical theater. I could go on 'Jeopardy!' and knock off the whole Broadway show tunes category. Also the whole Bible stories category.
What a different world this would be if people would listen to those who know more and not merely try to get something from those who have more.
I did enjoy Nashville a lot of the time, because I made really good friends who were really good songwriters, and they would be a joy to hang out with.
At heart, I would have to say I'm a pantser. I fully embrace the chaos of letting the unintended happen, on life and on the page.
If someone had told me in high school that one day I'd write an historical novel, I would have rolled my eyes.
For sure I once thought of myself as the poet who would save the ordinary from oblivion.
I would have loved to study medicine, but I was lucky to have come into the profession that I loved. I may not have been very good at it, but I loved it.
I would sort out all the arguments and see which belonged to fear and which to creativeness. Other things being equal, I would make the decision which had the larger number of creative reasons on its side.
My earliest attempts at writing were when I was seven. I would sit at the piano and transcribe the songs I heard on the radio. I'd change little things in the music and write different lyrics.
Having been a child actor, I remember how directors would trick me to get good performances out of me. I don't think you need to do that.
I used to listen to the radio, and when I was about 18 years old, B.B. King was a disc jockey and he had a radio program, 15 minutes a day, over in West Memphis, Arkansas, and he would play the blues.
When I was anorexic it just seemed like I literally wanted to disappear. And now I would like to reappear.
I broke my neck, it's a classic neck break from chin to chest. If I had been alone, I would probably be dead.
There is an endless range of parts I have not played. I would love to do a whole slew of period pieces. I also used to do a lot of stage work, and I would like to go back to that from time to time.
We saw very little of the real Jack Buck behind the microphone. He would touch people in ways that we will never know. Jack was much more than just an announcer.
I wonder why there is a designated hitter in baseball after all these years? As an experiment, it seemed like a swell enough idea, but you would think the novelty would have worn off by now and everyone would get back to playing baseball.
In the early days, I just got lucky. I would audition for everything and just happen to land in something pretty respectable, like 'Freaks and Geeks,' my first job, which was a complete fluke.
If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.
I would rather be loved than have money and all that other stuff.
Being a rock widow is not my job, so I would hire people to do it for me.
I decided I ought to pick a project that would not be controversial, that would not really cost the government a lot of money.
I can take a lot of pats on the back. I love it when I get admiring letters from people. And, of course, I'd love it if the critics would notice me, too.
I would never say I think divorce is wrong. After seeing what my parents went through, I would never want them to stay together just because they think it's the right thing to do.
If someone talks about union, fidelity, a monogamous relationship, love, blessing; I would say it sounds like marriage to me. And blessing, you see, I think is undermining our sacrament of marriage.
It's good to have it over with. I worked on it a long time, and I didn't know what people were going to think of it. Would people like it? Would they buy it? So far it's been doing pretty well.
The last thing I would do to this country is to even put my personal interests about the country's interest. I have never done that in my life, and I will never do it because I, you know, I was brought up as a very patriotic Egyptian, and this is not just going to happen.
It is not my duty to spend my money in my country, but it is what I want to do. There is nowhere else I would like to invest.
I would leave my wife for Whataburger.
How rude would I be, walking around and saying: 'Hello. I'm Eleanor Mondale. My father was vice president of the United States. Treat me differently.'
For me, I knew the Christy flat was a beautiful shoe, but I had no idea the incredible trend that would follow - I mean, it's the most copied thing ever!
So when I was 13, I basically left home and never returned and lived at home again. I would come home for a week at Christmas and two weeks in the summer only.
I was under 18, and to leave Kenya to come to the United States, to get a passport, you had to be 18. So I lied and said I was 19 to get the passport, because otherwise, I had to have permission from my parents, and my parents would never have let me come.
It would be easy to blame Hollywood to say that I was typed and forced to play the same role over and over. For a while, I did. But the truth is that I knew what I was doing. I was enjoying myself. I was making money.
Dreaming is an act of pure imagination, attesting in all men a creative power, which if it were available in waking, would make every man a Dante or Shakespeare.
The idea of feeling isolated is scary to me - to walk through the world alone would be heartbreaking.
If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted.
