I'm glad I was born when I was. My time was the golden age of variety. If I were starting out again now maybe things would happen for me but it certainly would not be on a variety show with 28 musicians 12 dancers two major guest stars 50 costumes a week by Bob Mackie. The networks just wouldn't spend the money today.
High expectations weren't nurtured in my neck of nowhere back then - children weren't fawned over from an early age as 'gifted' and groomed for a prizewinning future self-esteem was considered something you had to pick from the garden yourself.
Life expectancy in many parts of Africa can be something around the age of thirty five to thirty eight. I mean you're very fortunate if you live to that age. In fact when I went to Uganda for the first time one of the things that occurred to me was that I saw very few elderly people.
A lot of music you might listen to is pretty vapid it doesn't always deal with our deeper issues. These are the things I'm interested in now particularly at my age.
The age in which we live this non-stop distraction is making it more impossible for the young generation to ever have the curiosity or discipline... because you need to be alone to find out anything.
I figured out it was a social thing what women were allowed to do. At a very young age I decided I was not going to follow women's rules.
To be told that one can be dependent on one's parents until age 26 should strike a young person who wants to grow up as demeaning not as something to celebrate.
Every time I see something terrible it's like I see it at age 19. I keep a freshness that way.
Over the years Woodstock got glorified and romanticised and became the event that symbolised Utopia. It's the last page of our collective memory of the age of innocence. Then things turned ugly and would never be the same again.
The funniest racism is the racism between minorities. It's something you don't see dramatized but almost every minority I know who's my age they have these funny stories about their parents stereotyping other minorities.