Elvis was the king. No doubt about it. People like myself, Mick Jagger and all the others only followed in his footsteps.
I have fame on the level of a Marilyn Monroe or an Elvis Presley, but part of the reason I didn't go the way they did was because of my beliefs. People make judgments about Scientology, but often they don't know what they're talking about.
To me, John Lennon and Elvis Presley were punks, because they made music that evoked those emotions in people.
I'd been to Memphis before, but we stayed out of Memphis early on in the late 70s for obvious reasons. People were very sensitive about Elvis Presley, and my stage name obviously would be provocative to some people in that area at that time.
A lot of times, people find themselves in a meeting where the primary purpose is to receive information, and that's a poor use of people's time. Those meetings can be easily dispensed with and can be an email instead that people read in their own time.
Owning a popular sports team is very different than any other type of business. They don't throw parades when Apple has the biggest quarter in corporate history. People don't call and email asking for anyone from the team to come visit their sick child. They don't cry as they request a jersey of their child's favorite player to be buried with them.
You'd be surprised how many kids and young people come to the website and send me email that they are actually going into the Marine Corp because of something that I said or did.
When people saw that the film was called 'White People,' many got very defensive. I've been getting some very interesting emails - and I'm used to hate mail, believe me. I think this idea that we grouped white people together is offensive to people.
We get a lot of emails, a lot of suggestions on the kinds of ideas and things that people would like to do. There's a lot of good ones, but a lot of them are something that the franchise couldn't or wouldn't endorse, just as being not consistent with what the NBA would want or, probably, what we would even want, too.
To write a novel is to embark on a quest that is very romantic. People have visions, and the next step is to execute them. That's a very romantic project. Like Edvard Munch's strange dreamlike canvases where people are stylized, like 'The Scream.' Munch must have had that vision in a dream, he never saw it.
If it took professional wrestling for people to recognize me as a person, then all the other endeavors I embark upon will explain me as a person, define me as a person, but wrestling will not define me.
The lack of livelihood opportunities in refugee camps pushes many people to embark on dangerous journeys in the quest for a better life.
It is extremely frustrating if you are in your 20s and you want to embark on having a family and you're struggling to meet people.
I just did a film in which I had to be a dancer and I was able to do all kinds of extraordinary things. A lot of people turn 50 and talk about what they're not going to do anymore. I embarked on something that I'd wanted to do when I was 5.
Most relationships probably start with people going, 'Meh, it's probably best not to be embarking in this relationship.' We do it, though, because our brains are wired to make babies or whatever.
As a filmmaker, you put the film out there, and you just want it to be okay. You don't want to let people down; you don't want to embarrass yourself.
I've worn a 100% polyester cheerleading outfit in stadiums full of people - it is pretty hard to embarrass me.
I remember my first visit with my guru. He had shown that he read my mind. So I looked at the grass and I thought, 'My god, he's going to know all the things I don't want people to know.' I was really embarrassed. Then I looked up and he was looking directly at me with unconditional love.
It's embarrassing to go through any rebellious stage in front of people that you love and respect, and yet I'm glad I did.
This was not a decision made with the Israelis. This was a decision by the president for the American people. And so, it was a decision that we all said Jerusalem should be the capital and the embassy should be there. This decision should not weigh in on the peace process.
