I sold my first short story while I was home on maternity leave, then began working on novels. Since I was reading and enjoying romance novels at the time, the first two unpublished manuscripts I wrote were both romances. I sold my third novel, 'Call After Midnight,' to Harlequin Intrigue after submitting it unagented.
If you think about the history of mobile handsets, in many respects there was a time when Asia and then Europe all led North America.
I no longer have the terrible nightmares that I used to have. Mao had just died in 1976, and China began to open up. For the first time scholarships to go to the West to study were awarded on academic merit.
El Perro del Mar sort of accompanied my time at 'SNL.' To concentrate and focus, I would play the bass to one of her songs from her third album.
I don't think you change from the time you're 16 until you die. Maybe your body changes, and you have different experiences, but I think you become a fully conscious soul with full abilities. Souls are eternal, and if you keep your marbles until you croak in your 90s or your 100s, you're the same.
Hector Lavoe is the greatest of all time. Marc Anthony is the second greatest.
Sitting one seat away from Nicki Minaj at Marc Jacobs left me speechless. I couldn't say anything - and that's the first time that's ever happened to me! We locked eyes for a second, but I was too scared to talk to her. She looked incredible, of course.
To me, the idea of living this lifestyle is so boring that I would prefer to read Marcel Proust the whole time during a tour.
We need to talk about representation for queer people in the media and also in law. And there's a long history of drag queens leading those discussions in marches on the street and even in bars going back to the time of Stonewall and before.
When you're in Ranger School, it sucks. You're not eating; you're not sleeping. You're marching miles - for months at a time. It's horrible.
There was one point in high school actually when I was on the chess team, marching band, model United Nations and debate club all at the same time. And I would spend time with the computer club after school. And I had just quit pottery club, which I was in junior high, but I let that go.
A perfect record does not mean that someone is the greatest. Rocky Marciano never lost a fight, but I never hear anyone say he's the greatest heavyweight champion of all time.
When David Cross and I made 'Todd Margaret,' we spent time there. We were shocked and happy with the reaction that we got with fans over there. It was pretty awesome.
Once upon a time, I thought that politics was the name we gave to our higher instincts. That was before Margaret Thatcher, who came to power when I was 11 years old.
That is how you get to be a writer, incidentally: you feel somehow marginal, somehow slightly off-balance all the time.
In 'When They Call You a Terrorist,' I reflect on my time growing up in Van Nuys, California, surrounded by my devoted family and supportive friends, weaving our experiences into the larger picture of how predominantly marginalized neighborhoods are under constant systemic attack.
I've always felt like I was on the margins. Once upon a time that's what independent used to mean.
For me, my favorite Mariah Carey songs were never the singles, ever. My favorite Mariah song of all time is 'Sent From Up Above' from her first album, or 'Vanishing,' songs no one talks about.
I was 15 years old, taken out into a parking lot on the set of 'Donny & Marie,' and at the time I was 5-foot-5 and 103 pounds - like, nothing. I was told I was an embarrassment to my family and the show would be canceled if I didn't lose 10 pounds.
Well, I didn't really grow up playing or listening to metal, like many of the kids I went to school with. I only got into it in my late teens, so when Marilyn Manson formed, it was at a time when I was still excited about approaching music from that angle.
