'The Food Network' was just starting in New York and I was getting lots of attention from Mesa Grill. They had no money so if you couldn't get there by subway you couldn't be on. It wasn't like TV was something I really wanted to do - but I knew it would be great publicity for my restaurants.

My mother was a P.E. teacher and she was kind of a fanatic about fitness and nutrition growing up so it was ingrained in me at a young age. As I get older I'm finding out it's not about getting all buffed up and looking good. It's more about staying healthy and flexible.

If I don't feel confident about my body I'm not going to sit at home and feel sorry for myself and not do something about it. It's all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work whether it's fitness or whatever. It's about getting up motivating yourself and just doing it.

And you know the baby boomers are getting older and those off the rack clothes are just not fitting right any longer and so tailor-made suits are coming back into fashion.

The reason that minorities and women don't have a better shot at getting elected to the Senate or to statewide office is because the campaign finance rules are so skewed as to make it very difficult for non-traditional candidates to raise the money necessary to get elected.

In 1973 women got 59 cents on the dollar now we are getting 74 cents on the dollar. In the area of finance and business we are at 68 cents on the dollar.

It's not the having it's the getting.

Maybe I fear things going wrong so much that I pre-empt them by not getting excited about them when they appear to be. going well.

One of the most gratifying things I get as an artist is when people watch me do these different demonstrations and they in some way feel empowered by what I'm doing so they can confront their own fears. Maybe it's the fear of getting in an elevator maybe it's the fear of going on a plane and seeing the world.

Honest to God all my life I have had such a fear of spiders. In fact I use to have a reoccurring dream about one. Very clearly it was black with a red head. It would sit up in the corner of the bedroom and when it started getting closer I would wake up in a panic.

I had a constant fear a constant little doubt in my mind: 'OK I'm getting ready to do my standing back full on beam and I might re-tear my ACL.'

Right out of high school I never had the fear of getting beat which is how most people lose.

To me my biggest fear is getting a big head and that is when I get the hammer. Because it's very easy in this game to believe you're something special.

Some very famous directors have started in the mail room which is just getting inside the studio getting to know people getting to know the routine.

Few if any teenagers can relate to getting up for school and finding famous comics like Pryor and Williams hanging out in your living room after a hard night of partying. But that's Hollywood.

I think success right now is not about how famous you are or how much you're getting paid but it's more about if you're steadily working and you're happy with what you're doing.

When you become famous you start getting invites to parties where there are famous athletes and famous rock stars politicians people who have tremendous power and affluence. It's not in my DNA but certainly I have been exposed to it.

I worked at a hot dog place a bagel place the Jersey Store and the hottest fashion joint around. I was getting too famous to work there anymore. I was almost showing up as a joke. I made $2 000 on my show the previous night and I'm going to go shopping during my five-hour shift.

I was getting a lot of editorial as in lots of pages in 'Vogue ' but it's far more important to get your dresses on the back of a famous person. Charlotte Rampling in Bruce Oldfield. That sells.

The whole business of getting famous was good fun but it was a long time ago.

When I got into the music industry I wasn't focused on being the most famous artist or even getting a major record deal. It was just to make music on my own terms or create my own image do my own hair do my own makeup.

For me getting comfortable with being famous was hard - that whole side of it the loss of anonymity the loss of privacy. Giving up that part of your life and not having control of it.

Don't worry about writing a book or getting famous or making money. Just lead an interesting life.

The first time I went to Johnny Depp's house in LA is when I realized what I was getting myself into. I knew he was famous but I didn't really know what that entailed.