Prima Donna is my kind of love song to opera but it's not the full experience.

Places that have experienced great defeat experience a kind of rebirth, which I think America has to do - unless we want to get more decrepit. I don't think we have to destroy the place totally.

I strive for what you do find in Shakespeare's work - that there is a definite humanity and a definite character behind the writing in the sonnets, and it's very real because it's so deeply personal. I try to aspire to that in what I do.

My dad and I have always been somewhat competitive.

I just think it's better to have ideas. I mean, you can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier, people die for them, people kill for them.

I think the minute you mention death, people run for the hills - unless it's heavy metal. People do not like death.

My cheeks explode when I smile. Thats why I have to look so nonplussed.