I suppose I was a little bit of what would be called today a nerd. I didn't have girlfriends and really I wasn't a very social boy.
I suppose not everyone has a dad who wrote a book saying he didn't believe in the Parliamentary road to socialism.
Indians mock their corrupt politicians relentlessly but they regard their honest politicians with silent suspicion. The first thing they do when they hear of a supposedly 'clean' politician is to grin. It is a cliche that honest politicians in India tend to have dishonest sons who collect money from people seeking an audience with Dad.
My dad took me to all the best rock and punk shows when I was growing up and music has always been a part of my life. So I'm very interested in the music scene and I suppose that's why I've ended up going out with musicians. Dave Pirner is still one of my best friends.
My parents were involved in everything I did. They were showbiz people themselves. My dad was an actor. They were parents they did what parents are supposed to do.
My dad is a Jack Nicholson lookalike and a frustrated performer my mother's into reading and poetry. I suppose the thing I owe them most is my confidence.
That wasn't the way that things was supposed to be. And all because the so-called culture that I thought was right that I thought it was cool and I thought it was fun and it was exciting at the time. It all led to me laying in a prison bunk by myself with no one to talk to but myself.
I'm always looking for cool stuff to do because that's what we're supposed to do ya know?
I don't think generally speaking people become writers because they were the really good really cool attractive kid in class. I'll be honest. This is our revenge for people who were much better looking and more popular than us. I was a bit like that I suppose.
This is what customers pay us for - to sweat all these details so it's easy and pleasant for them to use our computers. We're supposed to be really good at this. That doesn't mean we don't listen to customers but it's hard for them to tell you what they want when they've never seen anything remotely like it.
Right now computers which are supposed to be our servant are oppressing us.
The other thing about FEMA my understanding is that it was supposed to move into the Department of Homeland Security... and be what it was but also having a lot of lateral communication with all those others involved in that issue of homeland security.
I don't start with a design objective I start with a communication objective. I feel my project is successful if it communicates what it is supposed to communicate.
I speak onstage to try to establish some method of communication. The songs are supposed to be a way of communicating. But speech and drinks and sometimes chocolates are also a way of communicating.
Politics is repetition. It is not change. Change is something beyond what we call politics. Change is the essence politics is supposed to be the means to bring into being.
Hip-hop is supposed to uplift and create to educate people on a larger level and to make a change.
Christians are supposed not merely to endure change nor even to profit by it but to cause it.
People would say you look weak if you're not cursing the opposition and driving around in a big black car while always wearing a tie. Above all to be 'strong' you're always supposed to be giving orders.
The worst disease which can afflict business executives in their work is not as popularly supposed alcoholism it's egotism.
Up until the Depression recession had a moral character: it was supposed to purge the body economic of the greed and excess that attends a business expansion.
There is something sinister something quite biographical about what I do - but that part is for me. It's my personal business. I think there is a lot of romance melancholy. There's a sadness to it but there's romance in sadness. I suppose I am a very melancholy person.
I suppose that by being absent from the music business it appeared that I just dropped out but really I never did. I was continuously working and doing various things.
The Queen of Crafts herself Martha Stewart and I have the same birthday. I prefer to think it's the glue-gun wielding perfect-tart-producing Martha and not the copper pan-throwing jail-going Martha. But I suppose if I am going to share a calendar square with some of Martha I have to share it with all of Martha.
Nobody until very recently would have thought that their husband was supposed to be their best friend confidante intellectual soul mate co-parent inspiration.
If there's no fire there's no scream. If there's no scream then no one hears you and no one comes to help you in the first place. The depth of my struggle has definitely determined the height of my success. To be able to teach my kids not just about success but about the struggle that comes with it.