Will

If you kill one aspect of a woman, you kill the whole woman.

The movie star represents the warrior in the life-or-death battle against the brutality of the human condition.

And once your movie moves from entertainment to news, it's no longer a movie it's a cultural phenomenon.

She could make her own clothes, she could paint; it was the first time that I had ever seen someone hang their own art in their home. I thought that was hot.

That was the first time I ever saw Jada Pinkett.

It was love at first sight.

I wanted to do what Eddie Murphy was doing. I wanted to make people feel how I felt the first time I saw Star Wars.

I wanted to be Eddie Murphy in Star Wars.

So, for the first time ever, I said it out loud to JL.

"I want to be the biggest movie star in the world."

What's true about movies is also true about life: You tell me what you want, and I'll tell you who you are.

There's a difference between talent and skill. Talent comes from God-you're born with it. Skill comes from sweat and practice and commitment. Don't just skate through this opportunity. Hone your craft.

The lyrics, as they appear on the final cut, are exactly as they came through. It was a pure stream of consciousness. I would later learn a term that resonated deeply with my experience at O'Hare that night: psychography, or automatic writing, is a theoretical psychic ability allowing someone to produce written words without consciously writing. (Skeptics call it self-delusion; I call it "another Grammy" and "my first #1 record.")

Everything rises and falls no matter how hot the summer gets, the winter is inevitable.

Change can be scary, but it's utterly unavoidable. In fact, impermanence is the only thing you can truly rely on. If you are unwilling or unable to pivot and adapt to the incessant, fluctuating tides of life, you will not enjoy being here. Sometimes, people try to play the cards that they wish they had, instead of playing the hand they've been dealt. The capacity to adjust and improvise is arguably the single most critical human ability.

The Alchemist is probably the most influential book I've ever read. It empowered my dreamer's spirit and validated my suffering. If Santiago could suffer, survive, and claim his treasure, then so could I.

Our minds desperately want shit to add up, but the rules of logic do not apply to the laws of possibility. The universe functions under the laws of magic.

The universe is not logical, it's magical.

Yet, that quick three-minute "Hollywood chat" would turn out to be one of the most important conversations of my life.

"Do you know how to act?"

It's respectable to lose to the universe. It's a tragedy to lose to yourself.

Because of my childhood experiences with Daddio's destructive streak, I've always had very low tolerance when I recognize similar energies within people around me. The funny thing is, it's always crystal clear to me when I perceive them in others, but I'm blind as a bat to those same energies within myself.