What guides me is to do work that's more avant-garde - things that I think are special. You can easily become a celebrity and get caught up in all that blur. I just want to work and surprise myself.

It made me have a much greater understanding of loss, of loneliness, and the level of intense tragedy that so many people have experienced in this world, I take a lot less for granted.

I bet they didn't tell you that was in the gift bag.

It would be terribly boring to be earnest.

Part of what attracted me to the village was it had a lot of parallels to contemporary issues. Like, fear and the way fear controls us. How the governing body of a town, or a nation, controls us through fear. They might mean well by it, but we are conditioned to be afraid of things. Fear of the unknown. Fear of terrorism. And it's unfortunate.

I grew up without a lot of money and my parents grew up with far less money. And that's kept me in line. Really in line.

Obviously I'm not there to pick up anybody, but I'm not afraid to hang out in a predominantly gay establishment.