I'm facing upstage, with my back to the audience, and the spotlight comes up on my back as I start singing.

I sang opera, I sang show tunes. I got into a rock band for a while. I've sung a lot of different things.

I think now I'm being taken a little more seriously. That's pure conjecture on my part.

I did I Love My Wife on Broadway in 1978, and then went into television land. Now things are starting to come together in the way I thought they might when I was a kid.

Students teach all sorts of things but most importantly they make explicit the courage that it takes to be a learner, the courage it takes to open yourself to the transformative power of real learning and that courage I am exposed to almost every day at MIT and that I'm deeply grateful for.

Writing, I'm convinced, should be a subversive activity - frowned on by the authorities - and not one cooed over and praised beyond common sense by some teacher.

I like to be loved by my children, and I quite like the 'Guardian' hating me. I like it when I read they want me to die painfully. Then I think I've really got under their skin. It's like annoying a teacher. Once they've shown signs of weakness, you really can go for them.

Interactions - whether personal or business, teacher-student, friend to friend, or family member - all call for balance, respect, and compassion.