I just like to walk around New York, just put my iPod on and walk around.
Between 1995 and 2005, the prison population grew by 30 percent, meaning an additional half million criminals were behind bars, rather than lurking in dark alleys with switchblades. You can well imagine liberals' surprise when the crime rate went down as more criminals were put in prison. The New York Times was reduced to running querulous articles with headlines like Number in Prison Grows Despite Crime Reduction and As Crime Rate Drops, the Prison Rate Rises and the Debate Rages.
It was also incredibly serendipitous that I would later learn I shared a birthday with Whoop [Goldberg ]. I went on to be inspired by many other artists and forms of art, and was soon directed to a place that would help harness my experiences and develop my voice within the craft, LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts in New York City.
I'm in a New York state of mind
I did a comparison of a school of architects known as the New York Five. I compared their articulation of wall surfaces, which I enjoyed very much
I love New York. I love the multicultural vibe here. Los Angeles doesn't inspire me in any way. Everyone is in the same industry, yet you feel very isolated.
I remember what a thrill it was to go from the back streets of Birmingham to Madison Square Garden in New York. . . it's like playing on Mars. You can't buy that.
It's nice to be able to be whoever you want to be. I moved to New York for that reason. I think I am a very good example of how you really can do whatever you want to do without having any kind of prerequisite experience of any of kind of connection. None of my family members came from this world.
We didn't build the interstate system to connect New York to Los Angeles because the West Coast was a priority. No, we webbed the highways so people can go to multiple places and invent ways of doing things not thought of by the persons building the roads.
A Maybelline New York woman is strong and confident - I love that attitude.
You know when Sharpton and I walked in, it was like. . . big commotion and everything. But everybody was very nice. And I couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship.
A New York friend said that visiting the South reminded her of nothing more than being in high school again.
The craziest thing is walking down the streets of New York and people recognizing me and asking for my photo. It has been pretty wild. I am used to getting spotted in ski towns, but I never thought it would happen in a place like this.
It's fascinating. It's also exhilarating when you see people making the exact same choices that you've made. It kind of validates what you've decided to do. I saw a wonderful production of Jessica Lange doing Streetcar with Alec Baldwin. It was gorgeous. It's a measure of what a great classic that is, that our Cate Blanchett also did an absolute amazing Blanche in Sydney, as well as in New York.
It has become cheaper to look for oil on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange than in the ground.
I was every Londoner's stereotypical idea of a brash, vulgar American. When I got here, it turned out that London was the Wild West, and New York was like London at the height of the Victorian era, in which everyone was far more obsessed with table manners and status-climbing than they are in London. In London, everyone was just crawling over this blizzard of cocaine. Here, if you have more than a glass of wine with your meal, people refer you to Alcoholics Anonymous.
Everything I learned and didn't do in New York I would put into place here in the London West Hollywood. It's fascinating, when you look at the critics' reviews, and we had a great one in the New York Observer and all that, and then the New York Times came and it was a devastation; two stars out of four. They said that I played safe because it wasn't fireworks. Then they judged the persona over the substance that was on the plate.
I drove from New York to California by myself. The iconography of travel and escape is everywhere in my photographs. . . So actually becoming a runaway was crucial. I had this idea that I'd make my way across the frontier and find my story as it was actually happening in the landscape.
I'm living in Los Angeles for a couple of years. I've been a gypsy for quite a while. It'll come to an end. I'm going to come back to New York.
The people are different in L. A. There was a time when I lived in New York and that was a bit of a shock, because everybody in New York was so honest, instead of so polite and backstabbing. But you learn to love the backstabbing politeness in L. A.