You're creating an intimacy that everybody feels that it's their experience not yours. I'll never introduce a song and say now this song is about 'my' broken heart.

I had decided I wanted to write about food and I knew the only way to do that is to speak with authority which meant learning the language and knowing what that experience is like.

There are a lot of things that make up a performance a lot of technical things. It isn't always just about pulling it up from the darkest recesses of your mind or your heart. It's your experience and your observation.

I have been blessed in many ways and one of those is to have been born in Africa for me a great treasure house of stories. I have been researching it since my infancy reading about it talking to men and women who have spent their lives in this land living it as I have and loving it as I do. I write almost entirely from my own experience.

And then I went to 'Dawson's Creek ' which is a show that was for better or for worse all about the language. It was a word-perfect show which I'd never had any experience with. And it was really shocking for me. I felt really hemmed in. At the time it wasn't my favorite working experience.

There are a lot of impractical things about owning a Porsche. But they're all offset by the driving experience. It really is unique. Lamborghinis and Ferraris come close. And they are more powerful but they don't handle like a Porsche.

Not only did I avoid speaking of Salinger I resisted thinking about him. I did not reread his letters to me. The experience had been too painful.

I don't think any good book is based on factual experience. Bad books are about things the writer already knew before he wrote them.

The greatest way for people to experience a comedy is to go in not knowing anything about it. But because of marketing it's impossible. Marketing meaning that in order to get people to come you can't just go 'Hey there's a great movie - we're not going to show you anything from it but trust us!'

What's great about the geek spirit is that life never seems to stop us and they never seem to kill our enthusiasm our optimism and our hunger to experience the world. We keep our sense of humor we protect our dignity we talk to our friends about the experience and then we start again fresh the very next day.

People only talk about what a joyous experience it is but there is terror: Your life as you know it is over. It's over the day that child is born. It's over and something completely new starts.

When you're a soul singer I'm singing a lot of songs about love and relationships that I think a lot of girls really relate to. For whatever reason that seems to get 'em excited. The DJ everyone always says the DJ gets all the chicks but that's never been my experience.

I have my team. Like if you see everyone around me - I have my hair and makeup girl my assistant. They're very calm they're all about positive energy. There're no drama queens. Everyone wants everyone else to have a positive experience. There are no agendas. I think it creates a healthy environment and there are no boundaries to cross.

With 'Bright Star' and with 'The Piano ' too I felt a kind of sadness about it being in such a different era because of my lack of experience with the era. And one of the ways I'd get over it is to remind myself that every film even if it's contemporary creates its own world.

When I'm writing I'm constantly thinking about myself because it's the only experience I have to draw on. And I don't see an exact reflection of myself in every face in the audience but I know that my songs have validity to them and that's why the fans are there.

There are more people than you think who want to have a challenging experience in which they are obliged to reflect about the past.

There can be nothing exclusive about substantial art. It comes directly out of the heart of the experience of life and thinking about life and living life.

'Donny and Marie' was a great experience. I tried so hard to be a great talk show host but it's all about relaxing and enjoying it. Marie and I finally figured that out. I would have liked it to continue but I'm kind of glad it's over because of the phenomenal workload.

My kids will grow up in a house knowing that it's perfectly normal for two men to be in love it's perfectly normal for two women to be in love. My kids will grow up knowing it's all about love. It doesn't matter who you're with and everyone should have that experience.

In my experience it's all wonderful with girls until about 16. Around that time boys kind of calm down and start focusing their testosterone. Girls get a little challenging especially for fathers.

I hate these platforms that are all over the place today they are all about grabbing attention. They are suburban! I never do a platform. Well I did in the 1970s but that was a bad experience.

I have a mess in my head sometimes and there's something very satisfying about putting it into words. Certainly it's not something that you're in charge of necessarily but writing about it putting it into your words can be a very powerful experience.

I'm a method writer. In order to write about the emotion I have to experience it. I get physically tired and exhausted devoting hours and hours and hours to it.

I think it's really really important to mix it up as an actor to try to get as much kind of varied experience as you can not only for your own personal growth as an actor but for the audience to keep them guessing about what you're going to do.