I don't go to the cool trendy restaurants. I go to either the holes in the wall or the super-fancy restaurants where there are no cool people.

You know for 300 years it's been kind of the same. There are restaurants in New Orleans that the menu hasn't changed in 125 years so how is one going to change or evolve the food?

The culture is going into a psychological depression. We are concerned about our place in the world about being competitive: Will my children have as much as I have? Will I ever own my own home? How can I pay for a new car? Are immigrants taking away my white world?

The newly decorated theatres produced things like car parks and restaurants so you could have a good night out quite cheaply without all that bother of having to go somewhere else.

At the end of drama school I made a contract with myself: I'd try acting for five years. I was 26. I had already spent eight years working in restaurants and gas stations. So I had seen enough small businesses to understand that that's what acting is: a small business.

Behind every small business there's a story worth knowing. All the corner shops in our towns and cities the restaurants cleaners gyms hair salons hardware stores - these didn't come out of nowhere.

The U.S. tries to provide immigrants who grow up here with a world-class education and imbue them with the can-do attitude that has long defined American innovation.

Everyone goes to the same exhibitions and the same parties stays in the same handful of hotels eats at the same no-star restaurants and has almost the same opinions. I adore the art world but this is copycat behavior in a sphere that prides itself on independent thinking.

All art comes from other art and all immigrants come from other places.

Murals in restaurants are on a par with the food in museums.