I'm sure I would have been considered a more significant artist if I was a singer-songwriter. It's just not the way I roll. I love being a curator and a musicologist. People write me letters and thank me for turning them on to Fred McDowell and Sippie Wallace, and that's partly my job this time around.
I was so grateful to have made 'Into the Wild' before I made 'Speed Racer' because on 'Speed Racer' I was indoors every single day, every single scene, on a green screen. Some of the time, just to pass the time, I would think back to climbing mountains in Alaska. That really helped me.
If I were to leave and raise a venture fund, I would have to find 10 or 100 LPs. They would all give me a bunch of money, and I would take a percentage of that to pay myself. They would expect me to invest that over the next three years, and they want that money back in seven or eight years.
It wasn't that I couldn't write. I wrote every day. I actually worked really hard at writing. At my desk by 7 A.M., would work a full eight and more. Scribbled at the dinner table, in bed, on the toilet, on the No. 6 train, at Shea Stadium. I did everything I could. But none of it worked.
When I finished high school, it was clear to me that I would study mathematics, even if I also considered economics and psychology.
How could a guy sitting in a cave in Afghanistan, have... plotted so perfectly the hijacking of four planes and then guaranteed that three of them would end up precisely on their targets?
Eliminating fighting would mean eliminating the jobs of the 'fighters,' meaning these guys would not have NHL careers.
My mum used Avon Skin So Soft oil when I was younger. She would have a bath, and then the smell used to fill the whole house.
When I was growing up, I, like many Jews, cheered what appeared to be the receding of faith from everyday life. The further religion got from our lives the better our lives would get, I thought, because persecution had been such a burden to Jewish families for generations.
I would love to act. I would love to do movies. If it was the right part, it would be really cool... I love funny movies.
If Marilyn Manson would write a song that says, 'Do your damn homework,' it would make the world a better place, and it wouldn't hurt him at all. And if he doesn't like it, to hell with him. He can come fight us - by the bicycle racks.
In high school I had a boyfriend who was super into rap, so I was into Too $hort and Wu-Tang for a little while. And my best friend's older brother would sometimes drive us home in this pimped-out truck, and he'd play all his dirty rap music. We thought we were really cool.
I think the questions on the grit scale about not letting setbacks disappoint you, finishing what you begin, doing things with focus, I think that those are things I would aspire to or hope for for all our children.
We have to make a bridge of confidence based on natural and elementary morality which corresponds to the natures of man and which would be respected by all men. I may be naive in this, but I think it is better to be naive than skeptical.
I know that Daddy had an important job. He was working to change the world so everyone would love wildlife like he did. He built a hospital to help animals, and he bought lots of land to give animals a safe place to live.
Mothers of all ages delight in their children, but I don't know that, if I were younger, I would feel as acutely, profoundly, preciously grateful for every smile, squeal, and - yes - diaper blowout.
Whites would rather not be involved in race matters, I think.
A woman never forgets her sex. She would rather talk with a man than an angel, any day.
I would rather be an aware citizen, and if an opportunity were to arise where I would have to make a statement, I would happily do that.
I'm probably a guy's girl, although I hate that phrase. I tend to have more close male friends than I do female friends, and I always have. I would say that of my 10 close friends, seven are men.
Any party that would put Sarah Palin up on a pedestal will never have my support.
There would be more sense in insisting on man's limitations because he cannot be a mother than on a woman's because she can be.
I would wear the blue overalls of the fieldworker and often wore round, rimless glasses known as Mazzawati teaglasses. I had a car, and I wore a chauffeur's cap with my overalls. The pose of chauffeur was convenient because I could travel under the pretext of driving my master's car.
I have to express sympathy from the bottom of my heart to those people who were taken as wartime comfort women. As a human being, I would like to express my sympathies, and also as prime minister of Japan I need to apologize to them.
I think about the audience in the sense that I serve as my own audience. I have to please myself the way, if I saw the movie in a theater, I would be pleased. Do I think about catering to an audience? No.
I always wanted to be a father and thought it would be great, but it just took the right woman and the right time to make it all happen.
The things you're passionate about and interested in, get experience with them by going deep on projects. I would encourage science projects, plays. Pursue science, math, writing, history - the 21st century demands a lot of cross-disciplinary thinking.
If the plane lost all my luggage, and I was somewhere sunny like Ibiza, I would just get a bikini, shorts, T-shirt, and sandals. If it was somewhere colder like New York, I'd go for jeans, jacket, and a pair of Louboutins.
I think life would be so much funnier if every day you saw someone walking down the street getting hit in the head by a monkey, don't you?
I thought I wanted to go to drama school or university, and that would have been a completely different life. But what got me was the sound, and hearing it. Hearing everything so loud, I loved that back in the studio. I loved that from the very beginning.
Greece's debts are all denominated in euros, but it isn't clear who holds how much of those debts. For that reason, the consequences of a national bankruptcy would be incalculable. Greece is just as systemically important as a major bank.
I was raised with the idea of maximum effort: as long as you could look in the mirror and say, 'I gave it everything I had,' it was OK. But if you gave it less, that would disgrace you.
Ariana Grande was on a TV show, and then she started her career singing. If I'm offered a TV show, I'm going to pursue that and then see if I can push my singing. And then if I push my singing, awesome. My biggest goal, though? Be an actress in movies. I would love to have a career like Meryl Streep's someday.
Most men would love to be stared at by women. Don't doubt me on this. And my guess is that most women are actually intrigued by it and have developed techniques and skills for dealing with it. Don't doubt me.
It would take six months to get to Mars if you go there slowly, with optimal energy cost. Then it would take eighteen months for the planets to realign. Then it would take six months to get back, though I can see getting the travel time down to three months pretty quickly if America has the will.
Working 14 hours a day until you're 55 and missing your kids growing up is not what I would consider a recipe for happiness.
