It didn't matter what it was. I was ALWAYS making BOLD statements at SCHOOL. Ever since I've always had a passion for CLOTHES, SHOES and that type of stuff.

I see guys LIKE Colin Kaepernick in the NFL. Guys like Marshawn Lynch, they're sitting down; they're MAKING STATEMENTS. They're STANDING up for what they believe in, and I think it's terrific.

It's a TREMENDOUS asset if you have a visual EYE because you can make huge visual statements in a very theatrical way and PLAY to the strength of theatre. But the high END of directing is working with actors and MAKING the acting the best it can be.

What you seem to find when you get into this biography BUSINESS is that PEOPLE tend to have an IMAGE of themselves that they want to PROJECT, and they want to color statements by this image.

I have an INCREASINGLY strong feeling that all of us, myself included, too many times make too many statements and don't ASK ENOUGH questions.

I don't MAKE political STATEMENTS; let's all have a LAUGH. Let's all live and be free. I try and live to the letter of the LAW, but right on the EDGE of it.

General statements omit what we REALLY want to know. EXAMPLE: some HORSES RUN FASTER than others.

I was attracted to black MUSIC for the same REASON that I loved those old Irish ballads. Both were social statements of SORTS, and both were INDIGENOUS to their respective cultures: Ireland, where my FATHER had grown up, and towns like St. Louis along the Mississippi River, where I was growing up.

If we're going to be successful and be considered credible in the Hispanic community, we've GOT to denounce some of the IGNORANT statements that are made about Hispanics and the contributions we MAKE, WHETHER it's to the military, our nation's economy, or to the history of TEXAS.

However, if the religions in essence merely repeat statements from the United NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS Declaration, such a Declaration BECOMES superfluous; an ethic is more than rights.