Because at bottom I'm interested in fear and in courage and cowardice and these are easier to get at through fiction where you can enter people's heads.

Why should we honour those that die upon the field of battle? A man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself.

Life is to be entered upon with courage.

The cool wind blew in my face and all at once I felt as if I had shed dullness from myself. Before me lay a long gray line with a black mark down the center. The birds were singing. It was spring.

Look at Neil Diamond. Was he the cool guy? No he was the housewives' guy. He didn't try to be what he wasn't. He just did what he did - made great music was a good entertainer nice-enough guy.

In Fargo they say well that's a job. How well do you get paid? For example for this book I was written about in Entertainment Weekly and it was kind of cool because my mom asked me if Entertainment Weekly was a magazine or a newspaper.

The cool part of being an entertainer is getting the opportunity to get your feet wet in all areas.

When I entered high school I was an A-student but not for long. I wanted the fancy clothes. I wanted to hang out with the guys. I went from being an A-student to a B-student to a C-student but I didn't care. I was getting the high fives and the low fives and the pats on the back. I was cool.

Originally I was in both software and in online computing. The first innovation really was sort of at that time that we're marrying the telephone and the computer so that people wouldn't have to drive to the computer center. We didn't have $1 000 computers.

We're entering a new world in which data may be more important than software.

Today most young women are exposed to technology at a very young age with mobile phones tablets the Web or social media. They are much more proficient with technology than prior generations since they use it for all their school work communication and entertainment.

As somebody who in my second marriage insisted on a prenuptial agreement I can also testify that sometimes it is an act of love to chart the exit strategy before you enter the union in order to make sure that not only you but your partner as well knows that there will be no World War III should hearts and minds for any sad reason change.

As a standup I try to change the world. As an entertainer I try to entertain. And as a lesbian I try to pick up the prettiest girl in the room.

If we are to change our world view images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He's not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people he's really needed.

Man needs for his happiness not only the enjoyment of this or that but hope and enterprise and change.

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.

All changes even the most longed for have their melancholy for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves we must die to one life before we can enter another.

On one level nothing's really changed in my life. I still drive my daughter in the car pool on Monday. But it's impossible not to be aware of this rush of attention it's impossible not to be seduced by it once you've entered into it seduced by being unhappy when the attention wanes.

These songs are old friends I have entertained myself with when I'm washing the dishes driving to the store and walking down the aisles. The ones that you sing when you're driving in the car and as a singer you always go back to them.

When I climb into my car I enter my destination into a GPS device whose spatial memory supplants my own. I have photographs to store the images I want to remember books to store knowledge and now thanks to Google I rarely have to remember anything more than the right set of search terms to access humankind's collective memory.

I take cabs if I need to get somewhere or I take car service. I don't drive I wouldn't mind riding a bike... People think that because you become an entertainer you gotta have this rock star thug image. I'm an artist man. I'm going to live like an artist.

Having played many roles of scientific intellect I do have an empathy for that world. It's been hard on me because flying the Enterprise for seven years in Star Trek and sitting in Cerebro in X-men has led people to believe that I know what I'm talking about. But I'm still trying to work out how to operate the air conditioning unit on my car.

To me the print business model is so simple where readers pay a dollar for all the content within and that supports the enterprise.

We're in this entertainment business really to give the audience what they want.