I was writing an earnest novel about cruises in the Caribbean and I just started writing 'Bridget Jones' to get some money to finance this earnest work and then I chucked it out.

My dad's sense of humor was direct and sometimes surreal - his quick wit is well known amongst our family and friends. He raised me on Spike Jones records and W.C. Fields movies and his sense of humor fell somewhere in between.

My dad was a huge country music fan but he also had a band and he sang. So he'd listen to a lot of music and the songs that he'd learn for the band were more from the male artists. So my earliest country memories were Waylon Jennings Conway Twitty George Jones Johnny Paycheck even.

It's very cool to be able to say that my first real film was 'Footloose' and my second film I got to star alongside Tom Cruise and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

You know Quincy Jones was a great mentor but he was a man in a man's world. Fortunately he's a very sensitive man and a beautiful human being and even though he was 14 or 15 years older than me he's a capable human being and has great communication skills.

Many art-worlders have an if-you-say-so approach to art: Everyone is so scared of missing out on the next hot artist that it's never clear whether people are liking work because they like it or because other people do. Everyone is keeping up with the Joneses and there are more Joneses than ever.

One person I've always wanted to work with who would be an amazing guest star would be James Earl Jones.