Myself
Mickey Mouse popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner.
I look in the mirror and see a few scars, but I like myself.
I dated all these girls and ended up not liking them and thought to myself, 'What was it that all of them had in common?' They had too much time on their hands. Even though they were pretty, they lacked something. A woman could be less attractive but with ambition and drive, that's the most beautiful thing.
I've taken the leap of faith to stop punching the company time clock and start working for myself. I'm now the CEO of Starfish Media Group, my production company, in New York City.
Most women would say they relate to 'Hedda Gabler' — there's a part of her in them. Ibsen was writing about a deep ambivalence that many women feel about domesticity. I think about myself and friends of mine — we have some of Hedda's qualities and traits.
I don't go long without eating. I never starve myself: I grab a healthy snack.
I was attracted to opera when I was 15 or 16. A very rich man in England bankrupted himself to put on a lot of opera during the war, but he converted a lot of people, myself included, in the process.
I see myself as an intelligent, sensitive human, with the soul of a clown which forces me to blow it at the most important moments.
I allow myself to fail. I allow myself to break. I'm not afraid of my flaws.
I will never give myself the luxury of thinking, 'I've made it'.
First of all, I always see the sun! The way I want to identify myself and others is with halos here and there halos, movements of color. And that, I believe, is rhythm.
When it comes to lingerie, there are no rules. I feel the sexiest when I'm myself, no hair, no makeup.
I love to reinvent myself, and that's because I am a very free person. I do what I feel, and I love who I am.
My marks were always bad, and I was a bad influence on other children, so they would explain to my mother that they could retain me only by being partial towards me, and so I should offer to leave the school myself. I would barely get 40-50% and was also extremely naughty.
I don't think of myself as hot or cool or anything, just a dork.
My father left his piano at the house when he left, and I wasn't allowed to play it when he was there because I wasn't as good as him. So when he left, I was determined to get as good as him, and I taught myself how to play music, and I just stuck with it, and I did it all the time.
In Van Halen there were moments, like in some of the ballads, I put my heart and soul into those records. Those lyrics when I sang 'em, I gave myself goosebumps.
Sometimes, I pinch myself. Through everything, its about hard work... believing in yourself and in the American dream. Believe that you can make something out of yourself.
I had the classic 40 meltdown. I did. It's embarrassing. It was pretty funny. But then I recovered. To me, it was like a second adolescence. Hormonally, my body was changing, my mind was changing, and so my relationship to myself and the world around me came to this assault of finiteness.
I don't compare myself to anyone else; I don't make comments about anyone else because they do what feels right for them, and that's okay by me.