When I became leader I made very clear I was not going to choose the easy life. I have always taken risks. I don't like comfort-zone politics.

The irony is going to work every day became the subject of probably my best poetry.

Political satire became obsolete when they awarded Henry Kissinger the Nobel Peace Prize.

But presidential approval also became a surrogate measure of national unity and patriotism.

As a young boy I read 'Cheaper by the Dozen' and immediately became neurotic about my use of time. It taxed me severely but only for the next 50 years. But I think it also allowed me to discipline myself to sit in the chair and be a writer where one of the most needed qualities is patience.

That's why I never became a director. I never had patience with people.

Music became a healer for me.

I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff I love classical music and I needed a time-out.

I became interested in folk music because I had to make it somehow.

By going to the movies and because of other things too going to college making a wide variety of friends moving around traveling I became a lot more open-minded than the heritage I was born into might have suggested.

Bill Bennett really became an idol for me. I listened to him every morning from 6 to 9 for oh years.

I think it's good that I had some experience of the real world before I became successful. You know having to get up in the morning and going to work in construction.

'Good Morning America' exploited Joan Lunden's pregnancy but you won't see me bringing my babies on the air. The only reason I'm talking about the babies at all is that they've been with me on the show since I became pregnant. After a while I had to acknowledge this pumpkin tummy.

Early in the morning I fell in love with the girl that later on became my wife. At that time we were so naive. I wanted to charm her so I read her Capital by Marx. I thought somehow she would be convinced by the strength of his criticism about capital.

I became a musician so I wouldn't have to get up at 6 in the morning.

I think that what went wrong with religion is the same thing that went wrong with politics. Is that it became too money based and too controlling. It's just a weakness that we human beings have for control - we want one thing and then we want more and then we want more.

I became alienated from this religious upbringing and started making music. I wanted to be a big star. All those things I saw in the films and on the media took hold of me and perhaps I thought this was my god: the goal of making money.

Countries have lost their culture because what they wanted was money. Money became the running theme in every country and culture was sacrificed.

An agent saw one of the plays I did at ACT but my mom was like No she's too young. I became so annoying that a year and a half later she just couldn't stand hearing me any more!

I deal with postpartum feelings by reaching out to mom friends. I became very close with some of the women in my prenatal yoga class.

I think because I became a mom later in life everything in life means more.

My mom used to say that I became a fighter and a scrapper and a tough guy to protect who I am at my core.

I became a mom at 37 and having a child has been an emancipation for me.

I basically became a cheerleader because I had a very strict mom. That was my way of being a bad girl.