I totally related to Cole Porter's magnetic pull to any piano that was in the room which he was famous for doing as was Gershwin. You couldn't drag them away from a piano.

And to me fame is not a positive thing. The idea of being famous is a lot better than the reality. It's fantastic when you go to premieres and people cheer you but it's not real. And it's totally not my approach to get my name on a club door just because I can.

The hardest thing about being famous is that people are always nice to you. You're in a conversation and everybody's agreeing with what you're saying - even if you say something totally crazy. You need people who can tell you what you don't want to hear.

When I do get free time I spend a lot of it at home with my family and my close friends and I think that's what keeps me happy healthy grounded and totally in check.

In times when religious or political faith or hope predominates the writer functions totally in unison with society and expresses society's feelings beliefs and hopes in perfect harmony.

Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success.

One of the things in the back of my mind is that after my sports experience I never want to be totally consumed by any one endeavor other than my family life.

Mysteriously and in ways that are totally remote from natural experience the gray drizzle of horror induced by depression takes on the quality of physical pain.

I am totally against the idea that a Muslim woman should not have the same opportunities as a Muslim man to learn to open up to work help shape the future. To close Islam down to a sexist approach is totally intolerable and ridiculous. It's not Islam.

It is of course further indication that a fundamentalist right has really taken over much of the Republican Party People might cite George Bush as proof that you can be totally impervious to the effects of Harvard and Yale education.

I think it is totally wrong and terribly harmful if education is defined as acquiring knowledge.

When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course.

I believe dreams represent the purest form of fantasy we unleash through our subconscious. They represent the truest freedom we can experience. Totally unrepressed and totally creative.

I just write what I wanted to write. I write what amuses me. It's totally for myself. I never in my wildest dreams expected this popularity.

I'm not on the run from anything and I'm not at all clear about what I'm running towards. But as some great writer put it I want to be certain that when I arrive at death I'm totally exhausted.

In almost every interview someone asks what does HIM stand for. I can't even remember our latest lie about that. When Hanson was hot we said it means Hanson Is Murder. The name doesn't have a particular history. His Infernal Majesty was a totally different band. I think HIM derives from some death metal joke.

I think one thing that kids who grow up on farms really have going for them is they have exposure to death and birth in a totally different way. I think it takes away a little bit of the mystery and a little bit of the fear and I do wish I had that. And I wish I was able to grow my own food.

But I was very very lucky and it was a wake up call as far as motorbikes are concerned. I never flirted with death on the bike but now I'm totally convinced they're death machines.

I don't know any of us who are in relationships that are totally honest - it doesn't exist.

I had always loved music. I grew up listening to classic country Waylon Jennings Merle Haggard. My dad loved Vern Gosdin and Keith Whitley. So I kept going to class and started getting totally into playing guitar and teaching myself these songs.

My sister is totally my dad's daughter because she loves sports.

I sort of always had an inkling towards some kind of an art form. I grew up in a very small town and I just figure-skated. My dad played hockey and I was surrounded by sports but it wasn't quite doing it for me. I wasn't totally fulfilled and I did a lot of skating.

I am a very open social friendly person and when it comes to people approaching me and asking for an autograph I am totally cool with doing any of that. It's a lot of fun.

Everyone is different but I'm not standoffish at all. I'm not one of those people who prefer to write a note. I'll walk right up to you and ask you out! Even if the answer's no I'm totally cool with it.