“I mean certainly, you read about things people did to each other in the pursuit of some mystical or occult goal, and it’s horrifying. But that’s just human nature.”

I really love storytelling, and I love the stories as they reveal themselves. It’s an incredibly nourishing process; it’s probably the closest I come to having a religion.

It’s also easy to look at them as a metaphor for a shadow organization that says one thing and has a completely different agenda on their mind, and anybody who gets in their way, they just get rid of them. Does that sound familiar?

I certainly believe that what we perceive as humans is just the tip of the iceberg.

That’s the day I realized that there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever.

Life is suffering. We have desires and expectations and egos, and we compare the reality we have, which is miraculous and wondrous, with this reality we desire.

I felt pride, wonderful pride, when I was captain. It was an honour to take over from Labby. Anybody who has ever captained a big club, which Everton are, will tell you it’s a great honour.

I would say try to tell stories that you care about as opposed to stories that you think will sell.

For me, the thing that I love is that it’s all about the present moment.

It’s a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself.

Beauty is in the strangest places. A piece of garbage floating in the wind. And that beauty exists in America. It exists everywhere. You have to develop an eye for it and be able to see it.

Makes you wonder what else you can do that you’ve forgotten about.

Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can’t take it, and my heart is going to cave in.

We don’t have any real sense of community anymore.

I’m from the South, so while I personally find it impossible to live there, I still have a fondness for it as a geographical region.

Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once and it’s too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst.

I would be so bored if that was the case. There would be no journey. There would be nothing to discover.

Certainly the details of our life are unique. Spending time thinking of how I am different from someone else, however, does not tend to be very productive.

There’s certainly more work for me in TV these days.

And China is not keen that the U.S. should be so close to its borders over a long period of time. Certainly, if the U.S. is going to be there for a long time, it’s going to exacerbate regional tensions.

My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They’re just horizontal lines.

I think many poets, including myself, write both for the voice and for the page. I certainly write for the person alone in the library, who pulls down a book and it opens to a poem. I am also very conscious of what it means to read these poems aloud.

My understanding of busy has certainly changed! My daughters have had an incredible impact on my life and the way I live it.

Certainly, we need government and legislation, but the governments really listen to people.

I think journalism can come from anywhere, and comedy can certainly come from anywhere.