I was always lonesome. The only time I felt accepted or wanted was when I was on stage performing. I guess the stage was my only friend: the only place where I could feel comfortable. It was the only place where I felt equal and safe.

I think that I have every right to write a book. I think I'm interesting. I have perspective about me.

When you get to know a lot of people, you make a great discovery. You find that no one group has a monopoly on looks, brains, goodness or anything else. It takes all the people - black and white, Catholic, Jewish and Protestant, recent immigrants and Mayflower descendants - to make up America.

Hollywood is a strange place if you're in trouble. Everybody thinks it's contagious.

I was taught that you can't be a healthy individual without art, music, or nature in your life. All my art is tied into inner cultural experience. It has to do with music or ceremonies or nature, even the funny ones.

Sometimes your worst competitors are the ones which are dying because they do stupid things.

In many a piece of music, it's the pause or the rest that gives the piece its beauty and its shape. And I know I, as a writer, will often try to include a lot of empty space on the page so that the reader can complete my thoughts and sentences and so that her imagination has room to breathe.

To be honest with you, I've been dying to do a nice indie feature - just something about a regular guy with a big quirk or a big emotional problem. Just something that's a straightforward, classic indie film. It sounds weird, but it's been easier for me to get cast in big tentpole films than the indie community. I'd love to do that.