The things that have always been important: to be a good man to try to live my life the way God would have me to turn it over to Him that His will might be worked in my life to do my work without looking back to give it all I've got and to take pride in my work as an honest performer.

I'm so thankful for the Internet because actors and singers and performers now have a way to connect with their fans on a very personal level which I think is quite special.

For the past few years I was the more visible Asian performer and I think it gave young girls a kind of role model showing it's possible to actually reach success doing movies.

I don't remember ever deciding to become a performer. I just always was. I began performing by mimicking the performers on the new television that first took the attention away from me as the baby of the household. I continued performing to put a smile on my grandmother's face and always considered her when accepting or declining roles.

Some have called we rock and roll performers who never retire 'troubadours.' I enjoy this misnomer immensely. While there are many differences between me and my distant predecessors in L'Occitane I do believe there is a lineage that connects us of the last 70 years with those romantic singers of the High Middle Ages.

The whites come to applaud a Negro performer just like the colored do. When you've got the respect of white and colored you can ease a lot of things.

Pop stardom is not very compelling. I'm much more interested in a relationship between performer and audience that is of equals. I came up through folk music and there's no pomp and circumstance to the performance. There's no like 'I'll be the rock star you be the adulating fan.'

Music never dies. Do we really need another Madonna tour? Does she have to compete with women performers 25 years her junior?

Pop songs are not as graceful as they used to be. Performers today haven't gone through the regimen of learning how to write. And of course everyone wants to own copyrights.

For me 'Rent' was all about coming out of myself finding out who I was learning the power I could have as a performer.