To me, it is one world, and the non-human animals bear the brunt of oppression and suffering.
In the late '90s, the magazine formerly known as 'The Wizard' came after me strong and hard. I was the brunt of jokes for an entire staff of angry fanboys; as much as can be poured on was poured on. But I kept focus, as anyone in that situation should.
I have so much residue crap in my hair from years and years of not washing it and not having any sense of personal hygiene whatsoever. Even today, I go into these things where I'm supposed to be this sexy guy or whatever, and I'm literally asking, 'If I get plumes of dandruff on me, can you just brush it off?'
People ask me why I don't paint oils. It takes too long. Cleaning brushes in linseed oil, and it takes six months to really dry, and all this. I don't have that kind of time. I work with acrylic. It's water based. You can clean it under water. If you spill it on yourself, you just throw it in the washing machine.
To me, writing and composing are much more like painting, about colors and brushes; I don't use a computer when I write, and I don't use a piano. I'm at a desk writing, and it's very broad strokes and notes as colors on a palette.
She was an enthusiastic painter of oils and watercolors. She was also very generous. I could mess with her paints and brushes all I wanted. On one condition: that I kept my brushes clean. The only art lesson my mother gave me was how to wash my brushes.
My favorite moment is when someone says, 'I like 'Unleashed.' 'Now You See Me' is so much fun.' That's what I want to do: smart, fun and big movies. I cannot lie, I love working with those big paint brushes. I have a blast doing these movies.
I had a few brushes with death, where I nearly chose to go. The final one in 1996 did it for me. I suddenly had that feeling that I wasn't indestructible. There was no big white light experience, I just felt this complete blackness and a huge voice inside me saying, 'This is not right.'
In the writers' room, I know the difference when someone brushes up against me and makes a sexist crack and when they've stepped over the line and made me feel uncomfortable and unsafe.
I sat in the barber's chair in David Miller's makeup shop, hours and hours of trial and error. While David poked at me with his crusty brushes, I grew more and more profane. That's how I started to find the voice of Freddy.
Somebody warned me early on to be very careful about brushing up against the chocolate.
I have to shave every day. If I don't, it's sort of like going to bed without brushing your teeth for me - but I'm a crazy person so maybe that's why.
The laws imposed by Brussels damage Italian artisans, traders, pensioners, but hey, Europe is asking, so we have to obey. Come on, if Europe asks me to throw myself in a well, I'm not going to do that just because Europe is asking me to, am I?
I know politics is emotionally brutal; I've already had experience with the reality of smear campaigns, so I understand there will not be a path of roses laid before me.
The process of writing a book has given me a whole new reverence for writers. Mechanically, it is a brutal process; emotionally, it's incredibly healing.
If I win and get the money, then the Oakland Police department is going to buy a boys' home, me a house, my family a house, and a Stop Police Brutality Center.
There are two things that have always haunted me: the brutality of the European traders and the stories I've heard about Africans selling other Africans into slavery.
You know me: I'm always down to be brutally honest.
My parents are really honest when they watch something. My nan is brutally honest. She'll tell me, 'Oh, you looked awful in that scene,' and I'm like, 'Well, I was giving birth at the time, so it probably worked with the character, Nan.'
When Bryan Price taught me how to throw a changeup, he made me see myself. All my life, I've been the equivalent of a fastball pitcher - trying to use blazing speed and brute force to wow the people around me.