I don't intend to simply go away and write my plays and be a good boy. I intend to remain an independent and political intelligence in my own right.
I can hardly find the words to describe the peace I felt when I was acting. My dysfunctional self could actually plug in to another self, not my own, and it felt so good.
When I was doing ensemble theater and comedy work, I felt I had some talents. But when I started doing my shows in Berkeley and found that I could be funny on my own, I was shocked.
Occasionally, I just need to escape from my work or be reminded of the comparative bliss of my own life, so I pick up a novel.
A theme in a lot of my books - and in my own life - is making choices that you feel you should make, or what society wants you to make, as opposed to what is truly right for you.
In 'A Boy's Own Story' and 'Jack Holmes and His Friend,' my idea was to take someone totally different from my real self and, at the same time, to assign to him my own life trajectory.
Of course, all writers draw upon their personal experiences in describing day-to-day life and human relationships, but I tend to keep my own experiences largely separate from my stories.
I love accents - I wish I could find an accent for every one of my characters. It makes it so much easier when I don't have to hear my own voice.
I am at my core a singer/songwriter a la James Taylor or a la Billy Joel. It's not that I don't want to work with people, but I do just love doing my own thing.
I always felt my emancipation into truly being a grown-up was when I had to figure out how to fold up a king-size fitted bottom sheet on my own.
So long as I confine my thoughts to my own ideas divested of words, I do not see how I can be easily mistaken.
I worked with my parents on the stage in production numbers since I was 4, but I never really gave much thought to being a performer on my own until I was 12 or 13.
This is my own little rock theory: In my mind, Nirvana slayed the hair bands. They shot the top off the poodles.
I believe my own demons would have caught up with me regardless of my race and regardless of whether I worked at 'The Times.'
I always keep a firewall between my own travails and my perception of public-policy issues; otherwise I would retain no credibility as a commentator.
I would have rebelled against parental authority, no matter what. When I was 15, I started painting my face and making my own clothes.
I wrote what I felt I had to write, and I'm willing to put my own sanity and my reputation behind it.
Every year I look at the 'GQ' Best-Dressed List and have thought what an honour it must be to be included. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw my own face in there.
I used to record but just in my own studio or in my friend's back when I toyed with the idea of being a rapper.
My own little rule was two for one. If one of my teammates got knocked down, then I knocked down two on the other team.
What makes loneliness an anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this: I have only my own burden to bear.
