I was TERRIBLE when I FIRST started skating and was clinging onto the SIDE for dear life, but it's something I'll ALWAYS have now, and the TOUR is always so much fun.

So MANY of us have loved ones and people we really CARE about, and the only time we show affection is when they are gone. I have preached at funerals, and you see loved ones who didn't even say HELLO to DEAR ones when they were alive. Give them hugs, KISSES while they are alive and need it.

You dear women, I say THANKS to you. Thank you for being the KIND of PEOPLE you are and doing the THINGS you do.

I have many dear friends in the FILM industry, but FINALLY, the roles COME to me on merit, not because of personal EQUATIONS.

I just don't think human beings are DESIGNED to have that BIG of a swing of emotions. I mean, I'm standing in Victory Lane literally SECONDS after Dale Earnhardt died. Dale Earnhardt was not only my CAR owner that day, my first victory in 463 tries, but he was my dear FRIEND, too.

As a screen composer or film-music writer, I need SOMETHING that I can work with in the BODY of the score. Like 'Charade,' 'Moon River,' 'Wine and Roses,' 'Dear HEART' - they were all just THEMES that grew out of the picture.

My INTEGRITY is SOMETHING I HOLD DEAR.

I took Al Unser out on a Hobie the DAY before he became the FIRST auto racer to go 200 mph AROUND a closed-circuit track. We were only going about 18 mph, and you should have SEEN him hanging on for dear LIFE.

A sympathetic FRIEND can be QUITE as DEAR as a BROTHER.

This June, I'll travel once again to the Food and WINE Magazine CLASSIC in Aspen, Colorado. For MANY years, my dear FRIEND Julia Child and I have teamed up to teach classes together at the EVENT; for the past seven years, my daughter, Claudine, has been my cooking partner on stage.

My father built me a theatre BEHIND the house where I COULD put on plays. Dear me, I'm MAKING it sound a bit grand, and it wasn't an amphitheatre or anything like that, just a little PLACE with a roll-up curtain box and I'm sure the plays were childish lopsided THINGS.

GUN VIOLENCE and social justice are NEAR and DEAR to my heart. And they are so connected it's sad.

Unfortunately, I am not the typical, old-school, 'Yes dear, you're RIGHT,' just to get out of a SITUATION. I am more of the TYPE to work it out until you think I'm right or I think you're right.

I was one of the ARTISTIC DIRECTORS of the Steppenwolf THEATRE, which me and many dear buddies STARTED all the WAY back in 1974, and I have a lot of that in my makeup.

Listen, EVERY person has to have a BIT of privacy in their life. There are certain THINGS I hold very dear and secret.