My father was in the military, so I was in Okinawa.

I had left the music business and became a conflict journalist. The conflict journalism started for me in the Gulf and the oil spill. When Skynyrd needed a new bass player, they knew me from the Black Crowes.

If the Pacific took Nauru, it'd wash away one of the strangest and most troubled places on Earth.

In a lot of ways, Nauru is something like a canary in a coal mine: It's a tiny place with more than its share of troubles, most of them the kind that might have been prevented.

Writing was something I always as a kid thought would be fabulous and glamorous to be a writer.

The Nobel Prizes are much more than awards to scholars; they are a celebration of civilization, of mankind, and of what makes humans unique - that is their intellect from which springs creativity.

I think reading is important for a variety of things. I mean, first of all, it's a way to get information and find out what's going on in the world. But also, it helps your imagination.

I'm not a very creative person, you know? I'm not really an art person. I'm not a great reader or writer or artist or musician.