I figured out early on what I wanted to do.

I got out of high school, bought a recording studio and started operating it as an engineer and a producer.

If it is true that we have a personal relationship with God, then that's enough for me.

Everything around a writer, or musician in the record business, probably everything in all the United States or in all of western civilization, is about competition.

You know, the thing that struck me about Civil War music was how bloody it was; it was full of hatred. There was incredible vitriol in it.

At different times in my life I met God from a different point of view.

Almost everything The Beatles did was great, and it's hard to improve on. They were our Bach. The way to get around it may be to keep it as simple as possible.

The record business is dangerous to the health of bands and individuals, which is something I'm just now learning. But it's not dangerous in any of the ways people think; it's not that they try to make you compromise your art. That's not the problem.

My original idea was to produce and not make records myself.

In other words, I'd say the whole story of Bob Dylan is one man's search for God. The turns and the steps he takes to find God are his business. I think he went to a study group at the Vineyard, and it created a lot of excitement.

I love loud music. I listen loud, and that's part of how I've learned how to do this. Record softly and play back loud and a whole other thing happens.

I made a few records here and there by default, but I wasn't ever comfortable in that role. I wasn't comfortable on stage. We'll see how it goes this time.

I want to write songs and play them for people - live.

I'm not going to get in to an argument with anyone about the relative merits of Judaism and Christianity, and what it means for a Jewish kid to be a Christian - I'm just not interested in that argument.

Still, records are documents of a period of time. Most records are documents of two or three years, and I just approached it as a record I was doing over a 20-year period of time.

I naturally wanted to be saved, so when I came home I told my mom I wanted to be confirmed. That's the way I related to it, being raised an Episcopalian. I went to Dallas and got confirmed.

But my point is these Civil War songs were gruesome. The hatred that's so bad in this country today, and for the past 10 or 15 years, bad as it is, is nothing compared to the kind of things people would write down and sing back in the Civil War.

I figured out early on what I wanted to do.

It's also ironic that in the old days of tape and tape hiss and vinyl records and surface noise, we were always trying to get records louder and louder to overcome that.

I think we in the Alpha Band, which was a strange group anyway, weren't dealing with any of these issues. They sneaked up on us and took us over, before we know what was going on.

I've seen a study in the last year that digital sound actually induces stress in the listener.

In high school I was making beats for my friends and for myself and rapping over them.

The strange thing is that since I've been offered lots of films I think that maybe they think that I've sold out to Hollywood. Which is not the case if anybody's listening.

It's a funny thing, 'The Office,' because millions and millions and millions and millions of people didn't watch it. But culturally, it is more of a phenomenon than almost anything else I can remember as far as British television is concerned.

A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are

I have had Crohn's for about 19 years. It is a debilitating disease that affects my colon.

I have heard I look like the guy from 'The Carbonaro Effect.'

I know this'll sound obnoxious, but acting was very much an accident for me. I didn't have, like, posters of Marlon Brando in my bedroom when I was growing up.

I was a bio major, and I was going to take over my aunt's dental practice and be a dentist.

My own favorite way to cook and eat razor clams is to simply dredge them in a mix of seasoned flour and cornmeal, then pan fry them in butter until crisp and golden. Be careful not to overcook them so they stay tender, not tough and chewy.

I'm just happy to be sitting right here in Chicago and right here at U.S. Cellular Field, holding my Hall of Fame press conference. I'm proud of that.

Parenting is the most important job on the planet next to keeping Gary Busey off the nation's highways.

The strange thing - and this is one of the advantages of being incredibly shallow and superficial - is that wherever I am, that's sort of home.

I just loved Amy Winehouse. I would rather have managed her than anybody in the world. To me, it was like the first time I saw Janis Joplin.

Love is too young to know what conscience is.

People who assume I want to run for elected office may be dealing from a bad assumption.

Interdependence is a choice only independent people can make.

If there is a doubt, I believe that I must put myself forward and undergo the people's judgment.

It is much better to have just one idea, and if the idea is clear, then you can fight for it. That is how you can get things done.

I always wanted to create a site that was sports and pop culture. '30 for 30' had a big impact because I loved how that was about finding, empowering and working with these incredible directors, and I thought the same thing could work for writers.

Because I was suspicious of the traditional Christian church, I tended to tar them all with the same brush. That was a mistake, because there are righteous people working in a whole rainbow of belief systems - from Hasidic Jews to right-wing Bible Belters to charismatic Catholics.

I grew up with a tribe of amazing women, but certainly my mother and my godmother really modeled women as actors.

What I want is not to become a status symbol, but to give beauty at a price.

Foresight has been a distinguishing characteristic of all truly great political, religious, and social betterment leaders.

People are out of their home on a Saturday night or they're at the movies or they're at dinner and a lot of the people who flip on the television are doing just that. They may have never seen your show before and you can't count on to your audience to be there week in and week out.