As I very much liked to draw and paint as a child, I entered a special art program in high school, which was very much like being in an art school imbedded in a regular high school curriculum.

While it was a very interesting period in my life, I was happy to get back to more direct contact with students in the classroom and in my research projects.

When there were financial difficulties they still managed to provide us with music and art lessons.

They greatly respected scholarship in itself, but they also impressed upon us that there were great opportunities available for those who were well educated. I received my primary and secondary education in Chicago.

I always loved drama at school. We had a great drama teacher at my secondary school, and she made drama feel cool. She inspired me, and then I did the National Youth Theatre in London.

I know I haven't spent a lot of time with my children because my job takes me all over the world and takes me away from my children, but I've given them a good education and security. If anything happens to me, my children's future is well-secured. So I think I've done well as a father.

The first and continuing argument for the curtailment of working hours and the raising of the minimum age was that education was necessary in a democracy and working children could not attend school.

I always have loved the Stradivarius. My teacher, Josef Gingold, he had a Stradivarius. As a treat, he would put it under my chin and let me play a few notes, and I remember that feeling of the overtones, the complexity of the sound. It's like a great wine.