Money! They go together. Franchise; money. Money; franchise.

Liberace was Elton John and Lady Gaga before they even dreamed of it.

As my life went on and I met Frank Sinatra and people like that, and I watched live performers on stage, I learned how to tell a story. Because if you listen to Sinatra, all of his songs are stories; there's a beginning, middle, and end. So that's where it comes from.

It’s been the structure of my life: you scheme and plan and try and fail and try again and accumulate and lose and win back, and then you tell.

In New York City there are interesting characters and there are interesting stories. There's a story on every street corner. I love it. I think that's what really attracts me to making films.

I do characters. I believe in that. I think people are interesting. Now, everybody that you meet in New York City thinks that their life is a movie.

I am humble. It was an honor, and I cried the first time I saw the film His Way. Because to have people of that caliber, like Julia Roberts, take the time to sit down and give a day or two of their lives to a film about me, that they're not getting paid for, is pretty extraordinary.