My parents used to park us kids at the public library in downtown Honolulu every Saturday. They'd leave us there at 8 A.M. and pick us up at 4 P.M. - so between those hours, you'd better find something to do! I sat upstairs in the picture room and went through opera, ballet, and theater books. I loved the photographs of people wearing elaborate makeup and costumes - they really pulled at me inside. I was in that library every week for years, until I was about 13. I had a rich interior life, because I didn't have much of a social life.

Most people don't deserve to be spoken of in the same breath as Chaplin or Lucille Ball.

Twenty-seven people sang 'Wind Beneath My Wings' before I got around to it. A lot of people saw the movie that I sang it in, Beaches, and what they came away with was that song. They turned to their loved ones and said, 'You know, you are the wind beneath my wings!' The song expressed how they felt in a way a simple 'I love you' would not have.

A lot of people say that my life is wasted on me because I could be a bigger asshole than I am, but I've chosen not to be.

The worst part of success is to try to find someone who is happy for you.

If sex is such a natural phenomenon, how come there are so many books on how to do it?

I sold my soul to rock 'n' roll.