As a standup I try to change the world. As an entertainer I try to entertain. And as a lesbian I try to pick up the prettiest girl in the room.

If we are to change our world view images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He's not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people he's really needed.

Man needs for his happiness not only the enjoyment of this or that but hope and enterprise and change.

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.

All changes even the most longed for have their melancholy for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves we must die to one life before we can enter another.

On one level nothing's really changed in my life. I still drive my daughter in the car pool on Monday. But it's impossible not to be aware of this rush of attention it's impossible not to be seduced by it once you've entered into it seduced by being unhappy when the attention wanes.

These songs are old friends I have entertained myself with when I'm washing the dishes driving to the store and walking down the aisles. The ones that you sing when you're driving in the car and as a singer you always go back to them.

When I climb into my car I enter my destination into a GPS device whose spatial memory supplants my own. I have photographs to store the images I want to remember books to store knowledge and now thanks to Google I rarely have to remember anything more than the right set of search terms to access humankind's collective memory.

I take cabs if I need to get somewhere or I take car service. I don't drive I wouldn't mind riding a bike... People think that because you become an entertainer you gotta have this rock star thug image. I'm an artist man. I'm going to live like an artist.

Having played many roles of scientific intellect I do have an empathy for that world. It's been hard on me because flying the Enterprise for seven years in Star Trek and sitting in Cerebro in X-men has led people to believe that I know what I'm talking about. But I'm still trying to work out how to operate the air conditioning unit on my car.