Growing up in New York City, I'd flirted with the idea of driving, but between the subway and the sidewalks, I'd never needed to learn.

There were not a lot of women in the theater department - it was really run by men, and so the message was that women can be onstage, but women can't really be backstage.

I would like there to be gender equity. I would like the Broadway season to reflect sort of the demographic of the country.

In many ways, I consider those to be my formative years, because when you're in school, you have a distant relationship to the world in that most of what you're learning is from books and lectures. But at Amnesty, I came face to face with realities in a very direct and harsh way.

I thank fate for having made me born poor. Poverty taught me the true value of the gifts useful to life.

Vesco was always on the trail in search of money.

Anytime you take someone's money, that puts enormous pressure. But I think if you want the most reward, you have to take the most risk.

But only 'rich' people by definition have the 'extra' money to buy things and invest to create economic growth. Do we really want to tax that 'extra' money away - and give it to the government to spend? Does that make any economic sense outside of politics and our emotional desire to make everyone suffer equally through these tough times?