This may sound strange but I had dreams as a kid of doing exactly what I ended up doing in my life.

Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.

Being in the design industry I've tended to meet more people who are affected by HIV and AIDS.

Well I never studied design and I went to art school to study art you know sculpture and things like that and ended up making things like sculpture and started making chairs and jewelry together and that's how I started.

Outside of the chair the teapot is the most ubiquitous and important design element in the domestic environment and almost everyone who has tackled the world of design has ended up designing one.

I was extended secret service protection during my presidential run in 1984 when I received the most death threats ever made toward a candidate.

Disease insanity and death were the angels that attended my cradle and since then have followed me throughout my life.

I was brought up by very witty people who were dealing with quite difficult things: disease and death... I was brought up by people who tended to giggle at funerals.

My dad was a singer in a band and neither of my parents went to college and I ended up getting into Harvard and was the first person in my family that went to college and it happened to be Harvard.

My dad didn't want me to play guitar. He played piano so I chose that. And I ended up loving it.