I would certainly never consider myself a Renaissance Man; I'm not fit to look at the dust from the chariot wheels of many of those who have gone before me.
I started by looking at what others had done before me. You see, over the years there have been attempts by many different people to reconstruct the chariot.
Barack Obama is way smarter than Bush - so way, way smarter than me. Obama is way more charismatic than me.
I started wondering why it is that people line up behind charismatic leaders. It's easy to understand the emergence of a figure who's narcissistic and compelling. But why people follow this person mindlessly - that was the hard question to me.
I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: 'What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.'
As you might imagine, I'm approached by lots of organizations and lots of people who want me to support their various charitable efforts in some way. And I look at those requests, and I basically try to do what I can.
I'm not a fan of giving to charities. I have a few I support, but the overhead and inefficiencies really bother me. Instead, I pay people's bills and help solve problems.
I support children's charities; I just don't want them around me. It's not very admirable, but it's the truth.
Growing up, money is important. And now I have a career where I'm making enough money to live. But I really want to give it to my parents, my family, charities, and people around me.
Doris Roberts had an energy and a spirit that amazed me. She never stopped. Whether working professionally or with her many charities or just nurturing and mentoring a green young comic trying to make it as an actor, she did everything with such a grand love for life and people, and I will miss her dearly.
I've had a relatively charmed life. I loved to be out in the city. New York was my town. I've had people come up to me and say, 'You're a great New Yorker. You've given your time and money to so many New York charities. You're a great supporter of the arts. I like some of your movies - and some of your movies suck, actually.'
Don't be surprised if you find me doing some charity work in another country.
Growing up, I saw my dad do charity work for children with health issues. That had a profound effect on me.
Whichever work you do, people go through life having several priorities. I know my football is what got me here. The work I do for SOS or my charity work in general has always been a priority for me, and then my family is a priority as well, so you set yourself different things, and they just balance each other out.
I wouldn't call myself a feminist. I am just me. I like boxing and acting and doing my charity work.
There is a world and life beyond films. My charity work keeps me in touch with that world.
Tim Tebow is one of my biggest inspirations. I actually want to be able to do some of the things that he does in terms of the amount of charity work and the non-profit work, and the way he impacts people off the field. I think that is what is most inspiring to me about him.
There's been a big buzz about the Charlatans in the last couple of years. I've heard the word Charlatans more in the last few years than I'd heard it for the previous 20 years. People would interview me for years and never even mention the Charlatans.
My very first recollection of life on earth was waking up in bed with my mother, and she was showing me a picture of my father, Charles Jackson, with a group of soldiers.
When I was able to go to school in my early years, my third grade teacher, Ms. Harris, convinced me that one day I would be a writer. I heard her, but I knew that I had to leave Georgia, and unlike my friend Ray Charles, I did not go around with 'Georgia on My Mind.'
