I was so opposed to the war in Vietnam that I initially refused President Nixon's urgings for me to go there.

I wasn't originally taking drama but the drama teacher asked me to audition for Bye Bye Birdie. I did and got the lead role. Initially I was kind of scared but once I did it I got bitten by the bug and loved it.

I think the reaction to a World War II situation would be the same today as it was in 1942. Initially people would question but once patriotism got stirred up the whole thing would gather momentum and we'd all pull together.

I should have been out there having a wild time like all the other girls my age but I wasn't. I was going home every night to what was initially a very happy marriage.

And initially a lot of companies avoid trying to make a really radical new kind of title for a new system because that would involve learning a new machine and learning how to make the new title at the same time.

I need to add that my work on multiple intelligences received a huge boost in 1995 when Daniel Goleman published his book on emotional intelligence. I am often confused with Dan. Initially though Dan and I are longtime friends this confusion irritated me.

I came at age in the '60s and initially my hopes and dreams were invested in politics and the movements of the time - the anti-war movement the civil rights movement. I worked on Bobby Kennedy's campaign for president as a teenager in California and the night he was killed.

Initially it was the unpractical in fashion that brought me to design my own line. I felt that it was much more attractive to cut clothes with respect for the living three-dimensional body rather than to cover the body with decorative ideas.

When I started this project I was a young architect. I was very apprehensive about any changes to the design. Whether I wanted to or not I learned that you can accept some changes to its form without compromising its intent. But it's a leap of faith that I didn't want to make initially - to put it mildly.

I'd be happy to be taken as a woman - and that's what I was initially trying to do when I started throwing on dresses and stuff. But that wasn't going to happen because everyone kept calling me sir. So I thought I'd change the method and just start wearing what I wanted to wear.