While I appreciated the educational advantages I enjoyed in the school and was proud of what I could show in mental culture, I had an earnest desire for something more than a mere business education... I desired to study for a profession, and this prompted me to leave my native state.
Yeah, we pretty much had a form and a shape by that time - a style - and I think one of the advantages of not having any relationship to any other puppeteer was that it gave me a reason to put those together myself for the needs of television.
Since the advent of the Internet - more recently compounded by blogging - everyone can be a published voice. Any cowardly, anonymous anger-monger can have an audience of thousands. That doesn't make them a journalist any more than my throwing an onion and a few carrots into a pot of boiling water makes me Julia Child.
I grew up the son of a Seventh Day Adventist minister, so I was really close to the church and sang church music between sips at my bottle, you know? I sat on the piano bench next to my mother. She was the church organist, so that music is deeply inside of me.
If I see anything vital around me, it is precisely that spirit of adventure, which seems indestructible and is akin to curiosity.
When I did 'Bird,' it was a surprise to some people, first because I wasn't in it and second because most of the films I'd been doing were cop movies or westerns or adventure films, so to be doing one about Charlie Parker, who was a great influence on American music, was a great thrill for me.
Many will call me an adventurer - and that I am, only one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes.
Many will call me an adventurer, and that I am, only one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes.
The adventurer in me would love to visit Patagonia, Chile.
I lose anywhere up to 20 pounds on location with adventurers like Conrad Anker or Brady Robinson. So I need to replace that lost weight and muscle by training hard when I am back in the States between jobs. And as I get older, it is far more important for me to be doing this and taking my conditioning seriously.
This is a Solo Flight, but I want aviation enthusiasts and adventurers everywhere to join me in the endeavour.
All in all, for someone who was immersed in, fascinated by, and dedicated to flight, I was disappointed by the wrinkle in history that had brought me along one generation late. I had missed all the great times and adventures in flight.
My friends have named me the person they least want to do extreme adventures with, because I always seem to be very close to being part of a disaster. If a cat has nine lives, I think I've used a few.
At a meet and greet in a nightclub in Texas, a girl who looked about 15 years old gave me a VHS copy of 'Adventures in Babysitting,' and she whispered in my ear that it's really just home movie footage of her dad practicing judo.
I guess not being able to hear just made me adventurous and daring. And in most cases, that didn't make my parents very happy with me.
To me, every interview, even if you love the artist, needs to be somewhat adversarial. Which doesn't mean you need to attack the person, but you do need to look at it like you're trying to get information that has not been written about before.
The fact I had my father as an adversary was such a powerful tool to work with. I subconsciously fought him to the degree that I drove me to be one of the most successful musician in the world.
I'm a forgiver. I might not forget, but I forgive. My mother, father and older brother always told me: 'Don't hold grudges. If you do that, you don't lower yourself down to your adversary. Just treat people the way you want to be treated.' I honestly think that's why I was able to survive and have some success.
The capacity of young people to persevere, even under the most adverse conditions, never ceases to amaze me.
The most compelling narrative, expressed in sentences with which I have no chemical reaction, or an adverse one, leaves me cold.
