The best thing about living at the water's edge: You only have assholes on three sides of you, and if they come this way you can hear them splash.

When Thomas Edison worked late into the night on the electric light, he had to do it by gas lamp or candle. I'm sure it made the work seem that much more urgent.

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

Avoid people with gold teeth who want to play cards

In my neighborhood - West 121st Street in New York, "white Harlem" - there were only two drugs: smack and marijuana. By the time I was 13, some friends and I were using marijuana fairly regularly. The Reefer Madness myth was still very strong then, but I'd been into jazz and those lyrics included so many casual references to pot that it was completely demystified for me.

This country was founded by a group of slave owners who told us that all men are created equal.

I have things that are strident and confrontational, and I have a lot of things that are childlike and innocent and sort of sweet. So, somewhere in between lies the middle of me.