A happy life is one spent in learning earning and yearning.

I did stand-up comedy for 18 years. Ten of those years were spent learning four years were spent refining and four years were spent in wild success. I was seeking comic originality and fame fell on me as a byproduct. The course was more plodding than heroic.

I have spent a lifetime watching kids make mistakes because they were not trained or well led or properly motivated to do well. I never faulted the kids rather I saw opportunity to train to motivate to improve leadership - not to punish the individual.

The biggest novelty of 2013 will be new leadership in China. Very little is known about the views of the new leaders - who will rule the country for ten years. But we do know they're the first generation of Chinese leaders who have spent the majority of their lives in a China 'opening up' to the rest of the world.

Military school was great and especially great for leadership and then I spent two years in Vietnam.

For example I spent a lot of time with Reagan both before he ran for governor and when he was running for president. As a print reporter without the cameras I was able to really test the quality of their minds and their knowledge base.

An excessive knowledge of Marxism is a sign of a misspent youth.

Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent in the factories the streets the cathedrals of the imagination.

On 'Into The Wild' I spent months risking my life and on 'Speed Racer' I spent 60 days acting in front of a green screen. No danger to my physical self but I sure had to use my imagination.

The contrasts between what is spent today to educate a child in the poorest New York City neighborhoods where teacher salaries are often even lower than the city averages and spending levels in the wealthiest suburban areas are daunting challenges to any hope New Yorkers might retain that even semblances of fairness still prevail.