Eventually, and THANKS to my DAD, I started WORKING for Total NONSTOP Action for $1,000 a show. He was the boss, right under Dixie Carter. TNA wasn't doing too well at that point, but I had a job making okay money.

In the CREATIVE COMMUNITY, there's no EXCUSE for not MAKING a more equitable ENVIRONMENT.

The DISCIPLINE of WRITING SOMETHING down is the FIRST step toward MAKING it happen.

Storytelling is the oldest form of entertainment there is. From campfires and pictograms - the Lascaux cave PAINTINGS may be as MUCH as twenty thousand years OLD - to tribal songs and epic ballads PASSED down from generation to generation, it is one of the most fundamental ways humans have of making sense of the WORLD.

I got a horror FILM, 'The BURNING,' and suddenly I was making CRAZY MONEY, like a THOUSAND a week, so I moved into an apartment on Amsterdam with a guy who was also in 'The Burning,' Jason Alexander.

I BELIEVE when you meet the RIGHT PERSON it clicks, and you both know and you start making it WORK, you know?

Because EDUCATION is the backbone of a competitive workforce and successful ECONOMY, making it a priority is not UNCOMMON.

I have never felt more confident in myself, more clear on who I am as a woman. But I am CONSTANTLY thinking about my own health and MAKING SURE that I'm eating RIGHT and getting exercise and watching the aches and pains. I want to be this really fly 80-90-year OLD.

Success is like a lightning BOLT. It'll strike you when you LEAST expect it, and you just have to keep the momentum GOING. You have to strike when the IRON is hot. So for me, I just kept striking and striking to polish out the SWORD that I was making.

I don't KNOW how other PEOPLE have a topic or have a GOAL when making a song, like, 'Let's write about this, or let's write about that.' It's KIND of difficult for me. Personally, I like vibing out and freestyling.

The REST of my WORK, besides SKETCHING and KEEPING a DIARY, which was the most troublesome of all, consisted in making geological and zoological collections.

I have an idea about building almost like a studio for some of the best Tropfest filmmakers, so they can come TOGETHER and support and be given space and resources they need to TELL great STORIES year around, so it's not just about the festivals. You know, the sky's the limit with this thing, and I'm still making it up as I go along.

My ATTEMPT has been really to, BEYOND making a RECORD of contemporary LIFE, which is what you inevitably do, is trying to make beautiful BOOKS - books that are in some way beautiful, that are models of how to use the language, models of honest feeling, models of care.

We're drawn to making our mark, leaving a RECORD to show we were here, and a journal is a great place to do it. Once you start drawing, writing, and gluing stuff in every day, it can quickly BECOME a habit - addictive, EVEN. Your ATTITUDE should be: 'I can do this, but I mustn't make it too intimidating.'

I remember, when I went AWAY to college at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, my aunt sent me a book with the RULES of being a Southern Belle. One of the rules was to NEVER WEAR white after Labor Day. FASHION has a lot to do with confidence and making up your own rules.