I'd like to say to all my fans out there, thanks for the support. And to all my doubters, thank you very much because you guys have also pushed me.
You guys might not know who Yves Edwards is, if you don't, shame on you, go do some research.
Working with some of the best makeup artists has taught me a lot of amazing tricks to making me feel more confident, and I can't wait to share them with you guys.
I might even be at heavyweight one day; I don't know. You guys know our eating habits is bad down in Hawaii, so your boy might get big, and we might make history.
I know a lot of people try and set expectations for me. No offense to you guys, but I set my own expectations.
You have to build your core nucleus of your team through your draft. What that does is you basically introduce them to your culture and your environment. Then, as guys begin to perform and play to that level, then you say, 'You know what? You guys deserve an extension, so here it is.'
I hope all the kids out there who don't like listening to their mothers, who yell and scream at them, that moms are always right just so you guys know.
When you're a young actor, there's this pressure to rush. But I hope to be doing this into my sixties and seventies, so I'd prefer to take my time.
When you are a young actor, you're imbued with the high purpose of your art. You think, 'They hire me for my talent; if that's not good enough, then they can hire somebody else.' Later, you realize that your body is as much a part of what you do as your talent.
When you're a young actor, and you're really fighting to have your place in the world - for me, anyway - it took a mental focus and energy and striving. It took a long time. And it was my whole life.
As a young actor, you hear 'no' every single day for years on end.
Most actors nowadays are models turned actors. That's why a lot of young actors are terrible. You have to learn how to act. It is not something that you can just do.
I say this to young actors: You don't get into this because you think you're average. You get into this because you think, 'I'm good.' It's an art form, and I'm an artist. But as an artist, you know there's not a soul in the world that's going to believe in you other than yourself.
In young adult novels and children's books, you stay in moment. The story goes through a school year or a weekend. You never get a sense of a future self because the young person has not lived that yet.
One of the things that I really like about young adult fiction is that you can explore the relationships between teens and their parents. I definitely think that teens are a product of their parents. You either end up just like them or you consciously make the decision to be unlike them.
I was under the impression that if you've read one vampire series for young adults, you've read them all.
You like to think with young adults that with your books, a little part of it has reached them and will stay with them. It is great to be part of an eight-year-old's world.
This is what happens when you are on the wrong side of 40. Young adults, who could be your children, are now working with you. I was playing their parents or mentor. I started to think: Oh, I am not part of that group any more.
When at the CIA, I was fond of saying that many jihadis join the movement for the same reasons that young Americans join the Crips and the Bloods: youthful alienation, the need to belong to something greater than self, the search for meaningful identity. But it also matters what gang you join.
The last thing a young artist should do in poetry or any other field is think about what's in style, what's current, what are the trends. Think instead of what you like to read, what do you admire, what you like to listen to in music. What do you like to look at in architecture? Try to make a poem that has some of those qualities.
