There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up.

In my family as in most middle-class Indian families I knew when I was growing up science and mathematics were held in awe.

I told my father I had to try political science for a year. He thought I was throwing my life away.

Growing up in the '70s and '80s science fiction and especially fantasy had such a stigma attached to them. I felt so punished and exiled for being devoted to these things.

The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often means the opposite.

I was always depressed growing up. There wasn't a reason for it I just was. I was sad and morose. I cried a lot I wrote a lot and I read a lot and that was how I dealt with it.

You get used to sadness growing up in the mountains I guess.

I get some of my ideas from watching my three daughters but most of them come from my own memories of growing up. I can remember how romantic I was not just about love but romance in the classic sense - the romantic ideals: of honor and truth of loyalty sacrifice and fairness. Those were the elements that made a story satisfying to me.

I could speak Spanish fluently growing up but I'm so out of practice and I have such a tremendous respect for songwriting in the Spanish language.

'Metals' has partly been about me regaining my self respect and I feel like I'm growing the muscles I want to grow again.