My mother was really loving and wonderful and tough as hell.

Never stop listening to your audience.

Later on, towards the end of their lives, I thanked her. I said, "Mom, you were really tough." She said, "I wasn't tough! I always believed in you."

Before there can be wonders, there must be wonder.

I love creating new things. It's kind of my job, it's what I do, and I really have fun with it.

Actually, I started as a ventriloquist and my music teacher said, "Why don't you emcee the talent show?" My act was out of the back of Boys' Life magazine-they had a whole series of jokes in the back of Boys' Life magazine for Boy Scouts. So my act was jokes with my ventriloquist figure, and it was really bad, but I walked into the classroom afterward and the kids went, "Wow, you're cool." I wasn't cool at all, but I thought, "Well, this is a pretty good deal."

Let sleeping dogs lie — who wants to rouse 'em?