Since I've started fighting it has taught me a lot about self respect self confidence and self control.

I think more and more respect has been accorded to teachers and quite rightly so.

I respect people who can do both careers like Will Smith and a couple of other people who have done it but I just don't know when they sleep.

My mission I guess has always been the kind of world where lesbian and gay people can celebrate who we are with equal freedom dignity and respect.

My goal is to get another 30 years out of this business. So I need to figure out the fuel to do that. And so far I think it's respect and quality and company not celebrity or box office or stardom. It's not a sprinter's approach. It's more like a long-distance thing. You can stick around a lot longer if you kind of slow-play it.

I am not someone who believes we should build a fence around our country but I do believe there ought to be some fairness with respect to the rules of this globalization.

I definitely think we get a lot of respect for what we do but I definitely think that some people don't like us which is fine.

Ragtime has about the same amount of respect as comics. And in a way they're similar art forms. Ragtime is highly compositional and the emotion in the music is built in whereas in jazz a lot of that emotion comes from the way it's performed.

I still don't understand the music industry that much. Everything I learned was from hanging out with rock musicians in studios. I certainly have respect for those who make music their livelihood.

Because we should always respect other nationalities I have always tried to play them with dignity.