My teacher my great cello teacher Leonard Rose was such a great cellist and nurturing man very patient. But I grew up not only admiring him but obviously Casals Rostrotovich Jacqueline du Pre and many others including many of my peers and contemporaries.

Among the American contemporaries I read with most enjoyment are several North Carolinians. I think the best poetry being written these days is being written by Southerners.

I'd love to do a modern-day musical that's full of original music. To get your contemporaries to sing and dance without looking foolish and for it to be transformational and magical and all those things a musical is supposed to be.

I saw how many people were poor and how many kids my age went to school hungry in the morning which I don't think most of my contemporaries in racially segregated schools in the South thought very much about at the time.