I think my family's watched me over the years in my career, in my pursuit of my career, and they've seen the challenges and the struggles that come with being an actor, with being a writer and a director, and the challenges of morphing my career in from just being an actor into a writer/director.

My sympathies go out to the young performers today because they are under a microscope in a way I wasn't. Now everybody's got a camera phone and can record at will or take pictures of you. It's just a different world. I don't know how I would have fared back then.

I really enjoy the writing process because I can do it from my house. I can create these characters and take them in the different directions that I want to take them. You have a lot of freedom as a writer.

I became a country music fan in 1990 when I moved to Colorado. It was my first exposure to it because I'm from a city. I've been a fan of country music ever since.

I asked Michael Jackson once. I said to him, 'How were you able to go from the Jackson Five to the biggest star in the world? What was your secret, Michael?' He said, 'Ricky, stay inspired. That's the hardest thing to do. If you can figure out a way to stay inspired, you can make it.'

Trying to understand women is a tall order period.

There have been times I almost got a persecution complex. I felt like people wouldn't let me grow up. They always saw me as a smiling kid or goofy teenager, no matter how much I'd changed.