My kids stand out at competitions. They're products of me. And you can't come to Beyond Belief and have a flamboyant teacher like me and be basic.
If in my youth I had realized that the sustaining splendour of beauty of with which I was in love would one day flood back into my heart, there to ignite a flame that would torture me without end, how gladly would I have put out the light in my eyes.
And as he spoke of understanding, I looked up and saw the rainbow leap with flames of many colors over me.
I don't know about you, but I've saved cards that old high school flames wrote me as well as those that employees have written me over the years. The power of genuine, customized appreciation will never lose its value, even in a gloomy economy... in fact, it's probably what we're all thirsty for in this desert of a depression.
Flannel shirts, denim, Converse, a guitar, messy hair? That's literally me.
You were the one who gave me those boxers? I wondered where they came from, I wear those! Although I'm not a big fan of flannel, it gets a little hot down there, if you know what I mean.
When I sold my first middle-grade novel in 2005, it wasn't that common to put an author photo on the back flap, but 24-year-old Korean-American me insisted. I wanted Asian girls to see my face. And more than that, I wanted them to see what is possible.
I think that the best way to explain that is that my mother gave me all the color and character and flare and liveliness, and my father gave me all the sanity and nature and all the things that helped me be a more rounded human being.
I really like to look professional but also have personal flare. You will never find me in head-to-toe designer - I like to mix it up.
Frank Sinatra took me to a whole new planet. I worked with him until he passed away in '98. He left me his ring. I never take it off. Now, when I go to Sicily, I don't need a passport. I just flash my ring.
When you ask someone a question, you trigger an unconscious flashback of their having been put on the spot earlier in life by a teacher, parent, or coach, and you create a syntactical 'you versus me' disconnect.
One time, on Marine One, the president asked me my opinion. I had a flashback to being at the kitchen table with my dad. That dominant male figure set me up for being confident to express myself with precision and persuasion.
It's funny, because what happens to me when I read a script, when something grabs hold of me, I start getting these flashes of people or places or things or images.
No, no, I don't watch football. The last time I tried watching was the last Super Bowl. The problem I have is, you know, the graphic nature of my imagination; when I watch and see them meeting head onto head, helmet onto helmet, what flashes through my mind is what's going on in their brains. It's like torture to me.
I remember, my first bicycle was very much a used bike. I wasn't going to Wal-Mart, buying a flashy 10-speed bike from China. Are you kidding me?
Some of my fans want me to just dance and go crazy and wear flashy outfits.
Every guitarist I would cross paths with would tell me that I should have a flashy guitar, whatever the latest fashion model was, and I used to say, 'Why? Mine works, doesn't it? It's a piece of wood and six strings, and it works.'
I don't try to be nothing I'm not. I'm not flashy. I'm just me.
I'm a hard worker, and everything with me is, if I work hard, I should get paid for it. Everything with me, I try to symbolize something flashy like jewelry or a car. The rubbing hands is a symbol of hustling, so it goes back to the money.
O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!
