Most countries in Africa have the capacity to be great agricultural producers, but they do only subsistence production. So a family will produce for themselves and nothing more. Why? Because of the systems: The markets are not there to go beyond.

Everything I do now is about growing the pot to have more to give away.

If you erased New York, I hate to say it, if you erased Frankfurt, even London, the world would not have changed.

California has something which not every place in the world has: It has what I would call a sunny side, and I don't mean just physically, but the sunny side is a future. California's worth saving, to put it bluntly.

At the end, the key thing is you've got to live with yourself. That's the real test. Everything else is fleeting.

L.A. is very special to me, so far away from my world on the East Coast, Europe, Asia. It's a bit of an island for me - less intense, less busy; because of time difference and location, it has a calming effect. At least it used to be all that.

I felt I was owned by possessions.