There is an old show business saying which warns never to work with animals or children, but nobody prepared me for Molly Meldrum.
A TV touchstone for me is 'The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.' That series was whimsical and smart and had the mix of comedy and drama that I now trade in - but with a dash of magical realism. I wanted to be Molly Dodd, but more than that, I wanted to be Jay Tarses, who created the show.
All the training at MGM came to be a great help for me on 'Molly Brown.'
How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers names.
I think number one is what my mom and dad preached to me when I was a little kid: Just because you may have athletic ability and you may be able to play a sport doesn't make you any more special than anybody else. Doesn't mean God loves you more than anybody else.
There's a lot of influences that I have from Detroit that are subliminal. I mean, I spent the first 10 years of my life there. My mom and dad were born and raised there, so a lot of that rubbed off on me. When I get angry, sometimes a Detroit accent comes out.
The game Rock Band has been haunting me like a bad ring tone. It gets stuck in my head and momentarily effaces all that I love about music.
Recording and touring are totally separate universes for me and it's strange and refreshing when they invade each other momentarily.
Ironically, when I've asked my straight friends to join me in hanging a rainbow flag, they answer, 'But someone might think we're gay,' not realizing that is exactly the point. To be mistaken for the oppressed is to momentarily become the oppressed.
Artistic qualities that once seemed undeniable don't seem so now. Sometimes these fluctuations are only fickleness of taste, momentary glitches in an artist's work, or an artist getting ahead of his audience (it took me ten years to catch up to Albert Oehlen). Other times, however, these problems mean there's something wrong with the art.
Oh, I collect facts and quotes when I can't write, and I can't write most of the time. I do a little chance operation sometimes where I flip through outdated reference books to see if anything will strike me as beautiful or momentous. Library roulette, I call it.
No one can beat Momma. She made me the person I am today - the way I think and act and move and talk and speak. It's all because of her.
My mommy raised me so well.
I think my kids give mommy more attention than they give me.
I am so grateful for my children who remind me every day what matters in life, and I feel fortunate to be their mommy and share their special love.
When Jett puts my face in his hands and tells me, 'Mommy you're so pretty' or smells me, it's so wonderful.
My mom always taught me - you know, little boys listen to their moms too much - that whatever you put into something is what you're going to get out of it.
I've had soccer moms come up and tell me they can relate when I say that I want to throw my baby in the trash.
My moms always told me, 'How long you gonna play the victim?' I can say I'm mad and I hate everything, but nothing really changes until I change myself.
Because of my unique experience as my mom's child, the beginning of my journey was more about me trying to figure out who I was on my own. My mom is one of the greatest moms and so supportive of all my siblings and of all of us being who we are, and not who she wanted us to be.
