While I was growing up in Flushing, Queens, we socialized exclusively with other Chinese immigrants. I was forbidden to make contact with nonapproved, non-Chinese peers outside school. That was fine with me.
Now, I'm not saying I'm fashionable, but there are sociological interests that matter to me, things that are theoretical, political, intellectual and also concerned with vanity and beauty that we all think about but that I try to mix up and translate into fashion.
The things that inform student culture are created and controlled by the unseen culture, the sociological aspects of our climbing culture, our 'me' generation, our yuppie culture, our SUVs, or, you know, shopping culture, our war culture.
My background is sociology. Combined with my graphic approach, if I could do some film projects, I think I'd be very good at making documentaries eventually, but people don't think of me for that, of course. But dialogue is something I know I can be good at.
In sociology, they call it 'code switching.' I can feel just as comfortable in a room full of people who don't look like me because I understand the social cues of class and race.
Guys back in the day, we didn't have wallets. I never kept my money in my pocket; my money always went in my sock. My key my mom gave me, I put it in my sock - whatever it was.
One weird thing about me: I come home from practice or a game or whatever, and somehow my left sock always seems to get off my foot, and I end up walking around with one sock on.
I know there are five stages of grief, but my parents raised me to pull up my socks when times get tough.
I'd go to meetings with record companies - CBS, Decca, EMI. They'd tell me to wear a pair of jeans and grow my hair and look normal. And I'd say, 'Sod that,' and storm out. And I do think that belligerence is important when you're young.
I can't remember last time I had a soda. It tastes like acid to me now.
I can't do the same movies all my life. I'm conscious of that. But it's a trade-off. 'Dear John' allowed me to do movies I've wanted to do. You learn to balance it out. I'm still learning. Only now am I getting to do the kinds of movies that I have wanted to do. So it's a steady climb. You don't jump into a Soderbergh film.
I stole a ton of film language from Steven Soderbergh and 'The Limey.' It's the definition of elliptical. It was the first movie I remember that introduced me to storytelling that isn't just one scene after another, and that things can be mixed up in the way that real experiences can.
'Out of Sight' is one of my favorite films ever. Love Steven Soderbergh. 'Goodfellas' was a huge influence on me in terms of the use of camera. 'Black Orpheus,' a beautiful love story that very few people actually have seen, and that was an influence on 'Beyond the Lights,' too, in terms of the look of the film.
I could come home, and I would spend the rest of the night just lying on the floor or the sofa listening to albums. It was like a movie to me. I still do, really, and doing the radio show ensures that I'll be sitting there listening.
Being home alone at night makes me a bit nervous. If I'm at home alone, I have to sleep on the sofa - I can't face going to bed. I'm there with the TV on and all the lights on. I'm not very brave about anything in life. In tennis, yes. In everything else, not very.
When I first became involved with PETA, it was on an 'issue-by-issue' basis - they interviewed me in my old apartment about animal abuse in the circus as I sat on a leather sofa.
Retirement isn't so bad. Give me a tall drink, a plush sofa and a rerun of 'Matlock,' and you can have the rest. Matlock is my hero. He never loses.
Channel 4 know I'm messed up. But they've got a soft spot for me.
I have a soft spot for 'Wind of Change' because it was my first one, and it was a departure from Humble Pie - very much so. It showed me the spectrum of what I could do.
I love to run. I was challenged to run the New York marathon four months after having my youngest son, and since running isn't a big part of softball, the thought of a marathon was a stretch for me.
