Something I didn't even know was on my bucket list has been achieved. I have cooked Thanksgiving dinner with Martha Stewart. I vow to follow the gospel of her teachings and do my very best in the remarkably less glamorous kitchen of my own home... without the luxury of magically appearing prep bowls filled by a staff of sous chefs.

I know. I'm lazy. But I made myself a New Years resolution that I would write myself something really special. Which means I have 'til December right?

To have the kind of year you want to have something has to happen that you can't explain why it happened. Something has to happen that you can't coach.

I am going to take something I learned over in Israel. Their Independence Day is preceded the 24 hours before with Memorial Day so it gives them a chance to serve and reflect and then celebrate. I am going to try to start that tradition here in America.

Christmas albums are not something you do frequently.

It is never too late to get into tennis! While I started playing at the age of 8 when my parents gave me a tennis racquet for Christmas tennis is a lifelong sport that can be enjoyed by people of almost any age. It's also something you never forget once you learn.

I'm going to take the kids away over Christmas but I don't I've written 14 musicals now I don't want to rush into doing something just for the sake of doing it. I want to do it when I find a story.

I don't know of too many double Christmas albums so it is something that's new and hopefully will be fun and there's plenty of stuff out there to cut.

There's something about a Christmas sweater that will always make me laugh.

If you pray enough for things I am proof that they can happen. I feel like a kid on Christmas day now every day. It's something I have wanted for a long time and I am as happy as anyone to be here. It is great to be back at my first love.

You can't allow the forces of political correction to shut you up. I mean why are people afraid to say 'Merry Christmas?' Give me a break. If people don't like it yeah they can go do something else.

The father figure is something I love but also suffocate from and want to work against.

Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep breaking traditions I beg you.

When you have a great and difficult task something perhaps almost impossible if you only work a little at a time every day a little suddenly the work will finish itself.

If you love something - and there are things that I love - you do want more and more and more of it but that's not the way to produce good work.

Confidence doesn't come out of nowhere. It's a result of something... hours and days and weeks and years of constant work and dedication.

When I was younger I probably didn't understand something basic about tact but I think it kept faint-hearted people at arm's distance and that's not such a bad thing because life is short and I know the kind of people I want to work with.

It is not real work unless you would rather be doing something else.

Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.

The difference between people who believe they have books inside of them and those who actually write books is sheer cussed persistence - the ability to make yourself work at your craft every day - the belief even in the face of obstacles that you've got something worth saying.

If something is irrational that means it won't work. It's usually unrealistic.

I think when you begin to think of yourself as having achieved something then there's nothing left for you to work towards. I want to believe that there is a mountain so high that I will spend my entire life striving to reach the top of it.

Football taught me how hard you had to work to achieve something.

My own image of my work is that I no sooner settle into something than a break occurs. These breaks are always painful and depressing but despite them I see that there's a consistency that holds out but is hard to define.