When I was a kid, I loved a heavy metal band called Motley Crue. I was thirteen when they came to my city, and I called every hotel in the Yellow Pages asking for a room by the name of their manager in hopes of meeting the band. After two or three hours of calling hotels, I got through, and the manager's brother answered the phone.

There's definitely some parallels between me and Joaquin Phoenix, I think. The line gets so blurry. My rap career wasn't a hoax, but it was absolutely intended to be a joke. The problem was that I really was on a quest to somehow be a Caucasian Ol' Dirty Bastard.

The idea is to improve somebody's day. That's how I've always viewed my job. I'm a distraction therapist. I make people's problems go away for just a little bit.

I'm a proud vegan, whistle-blower, and animal rights activist.

I think I am typical in believing that the Peace Corps trained us brilliantly and then did little more except send us into the bush. It was not a bad way of running things.

I know that war is very cruel and that life is harder when you aren't able to live in the place you called home.

The choice, however, is as clear now for nations as it was once for the individual: peace or extinction.

I wonder how many people would have thought at the end of World War II that the capitalist system would be one that was meeting the challenges and making things better for people as we approach the 21st century.