The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates.

Taking legal action against pirates is a headache for artists like me.

Life's pretty good, and why wouldn't it be? I'm a pirate, after all.

I like Pirate's Booty. Prunes and olives, too. I love hummus. I can eat that until I die. I tend to eat mostly organic food.

I aspirated some food into my throat and choked. I was in a coma for a little while, too.

At Easter the family got together and we were giving one of my uncles a hard time about watching scary films because on the boat leaving Vietnam, when we were attacked by pirates, he wet his pants.

In college, I wrote newspaper articles and songs. Then, on my 21st birthday, I sold my first book. It was a nonfiction book about women pirates - 'Pirates in Petticoats.' After that, I was a book writer for good.

"Pirate Captain Jim

Don't be bashful; we're among gentlemen. It's a known fact that we men are the missing link between the pirate and the pig.

Yeah? Can you draw a skeleton riding a motorcycle with flames coming out of it? And I want a pirate hat on the skeleton. And a parrot on his shoulder. A skeleton parrot. Or maybe a ninja skeleton parrot? No, that would be overkill. But it'd be cool if the biker skeleton could be shooting some ninja throwing stars. That are on fire.

1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them.

Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.

I have more respect for somebody who points at his ideal - in this case the ideal of the pirate - and then becomes something that's more radical more exciting more subversive than a pirate could ever be.

I didn't know this about myself but when 'Pirates of the Caribbean' came out I realised that I didn't enjoy a huge amount of recognition. I didn't react to it well but I think life is about finding out who you are and what you like. So I started doing independent movies and art-house films instead.

Life's pretty good and why wouldn't it be? I'm a pirate after all.

It was a great experience for a kid because it was a bunch of kids playing on pirate ships and water slides so looking back on it it was the fondest experience of my childhood.

I wondered how they would top the Pirates and skeletons and moonlight because that's a pretty cool concept.