I was really fortunate growing up to have a broad musical education. My parents listened to all kinds of music rock soul Motown jazz Frank Sinatra everything.

My parents came from a poor background and worked their way up because of education. They saw it as a way to succeed. So they cared about me getting straight A grades when I was growing up.

Education was the most important value in our home when I was growing up. People don't always realize that my parents shared a sense of intellectual curiosity and a love of reading and of history.

Growing up I was encouraged to get a good education get a real job doing something I enjoyed and should the opportunity present itself consider public service as just that: a chance to serve not an end in itself.

My father is a real idealist and he's all about learning. If I asked for a pair of Nikes growing up it was just a resounding 'No.' But if I asked for a saxophone one would appear and next day and I'd be signed up for lessons. So anything to do with education or learning my father would spare no expense.

I believe history will come to view 9/11 as an event on par with November 22 1963 the date on which John F. Kennedy was murdered cutting short a presidency that was growing ever more promising. Dreams died that day in Dallas it is easy to imagine the 1960s turning out rather differently had President Kennedy lived.

To this day some of my closest friends say 'Gaga you know everything's great. You're a singer your dreams have come true.' But still when certain things are said to you over and over again as you're growing up it stays with you and you wonder if they're true.

I've just been growing right along. It's painful but it's a great pain and I like suffering for great results. It's like going to the gym. It hurts really bad at first but after a couple of months and after that diet you're looking so hot.

Looking back video game design seems a natural fit although there was no such thing when I was growing up. I built a Tic-Tac-Toe playing machine in my teens which went up in smoke on the night it was scheduled to go to a science fair.

Some of us can be examples about going ahead and growing and some of us unfortunately don't make it there and end up being examples because they had to die. I hit rock bottom but thank God my bottom wasn't death.

We had two rules growing up in my house: If you're going to take a shower do it with whomever you're dating so you don't waste water and if you buy one for yourself buy six because everybody's going to want one.

It took me realizing that a broken heart has never actually killed anyone to find the courage to ask for what I want in just about every situation. That was part of my own growing up.

I hated the idea of a high school sweetheart. Growing up oh my God it just made me sick. I wanted to have a range of cool boyfriends. I wanted to travel around and date these interesting men. Then it just happened. You fall in love.

Being a kid and growing up is such a cool part of life.

I never felt cool growing up. I was a bit of an outsider but I discovered theatre very early on which got me through.

Sometimes guys are so concerned with being cool and hanging out with their friends. They don't want to seem like the guy that 'has to call his girlfriend.' It's just boys growing up.

New York had a big influence on me growing up and I was really part of the club scene - the Mudd Club and Studio 54. When you're living in New York you are just bombarded with style trying to figure out how to be cool and how to feel relaxed at the same time.

I think it's really cool but Jimmy Eat World and Gin Blossoms did it better than anyone. People don't realize just how awesome the Arizona history is especially for alternative music. Growing up that's all I ever wanted to be was those two bands.

All this stuff is so mind-blowing to me that I get to do in my life. Throwing the first pitch out at the White Sox game on a random Wednesday? Like who am I? How did I get this life? I'm glad I'm not jaded and little kids are the least jaded people in the entire world so it's fun to be around people that still find wonder in how cool things are.

Cynicism is kind of like folding your arms and stepping back and commenting on things like the old guys in 'The Muppets ' just throwing out comments all the time whereas there are other people on the ground really trying to affect things and improve their lives and the lives of other people. I think it's noble and I think it's cool.

With our work at Kazaa we began seeing growing broadband connections and more powerful computers and more streaming multimedia and we saw that the traditional way of communicating by phone no longer made a lot of sense.

I didn't know folk music growing up no. It's something I've come to study really because I think there's so much to learn from traditional music in the sense of the way music began as a way of communication the traveling storyteller the bard the minstrels.

My kid could get a bad X-ray and I could get a call from the doctor saying I have something growing in my bum and that would change my perspective on everything instantaneously on what is and what is not important.

I'd be happy to be taken as a woman - and that's what I was initially trying to do when I started throwing on dresses and stuff. But that wasn't going to happen because everyone kept calling me sir. So I thought I'd change the method and just start wearing what I wanted to wear.