By then I was in Brooklyn and drank my way through that summer. I stopped when I got sick of that and got a job at the Strand bookstore, which was a little better than the tax job.
Some artists imagine they've got a hold on this apparatus, which in fact has got a hold of them. As a result, they end up supporting a cultural prison that is out of their control.
The bar was very high-we had to really make sure that we got what we really wanted, that it was a real finished album. We weren't going to give up until we got that.
I still find trusting people quite hard. I've got a couple of mates that I do let in, but that's it. It's something I've got to sort out - I cut people off.
I got my first lifetime achievement award years ago, and I was very excited, but then I got a sense of: Well, can one get a second lifetime award?
The tenor of the comments as we got closer and closer to August got dominated by 'Wouldja please get this over with' and not let us go into default.
As a designer, you've always got to push yourself forward; you've always got to keep up with the trends or make your own trends. That's what I do.
In order to be a lieutenant, you've got to have authority in your voice. No matter how young your face looks, you've got to let your guys know that you're in charge.
Working on 'Gossip Girl' was a fantastic experience. It was my first real gig and I'm thankful for it - I got to learn a lot. I'm glad I got to explore getting comfortable in my own shoes in the background on a show like 'Gossip Girl.'
If you've never felt that you quite got a hold of it, you just feel that before you die, you've got to try and get it right once. And hope that the experience you have makes up for the some of the diminishing energy.
I really do love Diana Ross; I grew up listening to her records. I grew up in a little town in Mexico, so while we got the music, we never got the experience of watching her.
I first got involved with ending world hunger, and I got hip to the facts about it - what a huge problem it was and how it wasn't a matter of not having food or not knowing how to end it, but it was a matter of creating the political will.
I can see how you could get dragged into the bad stuff, but I've got good friends around me, good family. I think I've got my head screwed on.
I've got incredible support from my wife and family and people around me. I've got great people around me who handle anything on the outside, business-wise, who help free me up to create in my job.
Business book writing for me is when some set of ideas gets stuck in my mind, I write a book about it. I haven't got a theory and I haven't got a framework.
I finally got a chance to talk to my daughter from my previous marriage. I just got married May 3 to my beautiful wife, but we don't see each other much.
We have a country that is $5 a gallon gas, $4 a gallon gas, we got unbearable unemployment and a federal government that is out of control. We have to take back this country and we've got to get off the sidelines and take it to President Obama.
We got to go to Lucas Ranch and, at that time, my brother was still living in a condo about a mile from Robin Williams, and so I made all of the other comics jealous because I got to get a ride home with him.
People like rumors. They're going to say things like, 'You was at the club with Lil' Kim, and you and Kanye West got into a fist fight.' You can't get upset. You've got to keep hope alive.
You've got to be careful of guys trying to chop-block you. You know, running backs, the receivers. You've got to just hope that your knees are fine and you can avoid those chop blocks.
Harlem is not a playground for rich bankers and consultants. It's got students of all colors. It's got old people who keep history and tell tall tales.
