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 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.

It's scary to me to watch the world around us get less and less physical while in the imaginary world of pop culture, aggressive impulses and fear reactions are floridly, furiously stoked and indulged.

I couldn't see a future of doing anything other than performing. I didn't like school if I'm being honest. I would have settled for performing in any capacity.

If we did the things we are capable of we would astound ourselves.

It doesn't behoove you as an actor to sit around and worry.

I have been doing so much. Speaking engagements... producing... developing a half-hour sitcom... working on a movie... leading acting workshops all over the world... and hosting 'My Black Is Beautiful,' an empowerment TV show I'm doing on BET for women.

My constituents say, 'Congressman, have you balanced the budget?' And I'm going to say, 'Well, we're working on it.' And they are going to say, 'Well, Congressman, did you get rid of Fannie and Freddie?' And I'm going to say, 'Well, we're working on it.'

You have been assigned this mountain to show others it can be moved.

New clothes are a great way to deal after a breakup. A good mix CD also helps you get through it and you know 72 hours of ice cream.

I was never attracted to being a very proficient singer or player. I suppose I was interested in creating a vision; in the same way I was very drawn to tension within cinema.

As a child, I copied Duerer drawings and Bruegel.

In England, there's a lot of people producing their own work and becoming producers and filmmakers, so they're not constantly waiting around. It can be very scarce for work, so it's important to create the work.

It's important to have the right agent - people that are working hard for you. But an actor needs to be in control of their career no matter how good the representation is.

The great consolation in life is to say what one thinks.

Around people I don't know, I'm totally at a loss.

Happiness is a choice you cannot choose what happens but you can choose your reaction to it and be happy.

France, because it was attacked cowardly, shamelessly, violently, France will be merciless against the barbarians of Daesh.

We have no right to express an opinion until we know all of the answers.

It has been said that I make chick flicks. This is not a compliment.

Hello and good bye are not as simple as everyone thinks.

The most expensive hobby a rich man could have is a boat and the second most expensive hobby he could have is a very old house.

To me, respect for human life begins with making it more difficult to obtain an inanimate object that is designed to snuff it out.

I'd love to be an astronaut. I bet you get a better understanding of our planet seeing it from a distance.

I used to go red when anybody spoke to me. It's awful because you absolutely cannot control it. If you are a child that blushes, or is shy, the one thing you want in the world is to be the child who comes in and says, 'Hi,' to everyone and goes up and makes friends.

You can't get a contemporary story about what is going on inside government, and how society sees itself, on American TV.