Eight times a week, I got to be a gay man, a remarkable gay man, and every night, that felt as full, as true, as passionate, and as authentic as I ever felt in my life.
If I'm in Rome for only 48 hours, I would consider it a sin against God to not eat cacio e pepe, the most uniquely Roman of pastas, in some crummy little joint where Romans eat. I'd much rather do that than go to the Vatican. That's Rome to me.
To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.
Chaos and intensity are no substitute for lasting love, nor are they necessarily an improvement on real life.
Acting happened to me. If I had pursued it, I think it would have been like someone going to a bar, desperately looking for love and not finding anyone.
I like being able to walk into an old town and find good local food.
There's a difference between reality TV and reality. There's a big difference.
The shock, the power of an ordinary life. It is a thing you could not invent with banks of computers in a dust-free room.
All the difference in the world between the movies and the thrill I get out of a play at the theater. Ay, yes! Like fooling around with paper dolls when you could be playing with a real live baby.
I've been visiting Thailand for more than 20 years but didn't fall in love with it until I visited Phuket Town in Phuket. The northern part of Phuket is one of the most fascinating places I've ever been, and largely unspoilt and unknown.
Art has no other object than to set aside the symbols of practical utility, the generalities that are conventionally and socially accepted, everything in fact which masks reality from us, in order to set us face to face with reality itself.
Music is real when it goes inside you. You know when you really love someone, and you look into their eyes and you know it's real? Even though I'm an electronic artist, I wanna keep it real.
There's no doubt arena shows are exciting, but you don't get that up close and personal kind of vibe, and that's what rock n' roll is all about for me.
I felt completely at home in Mexico - speaking Spanish to my cousins, running around Acapulco and stuffing my face with mole and homemade tortillas. Mexico opened my heart.
Compared to overdeveloped islands like Nassau, Bimini has kept its original charm. Walk the streets to see colorfully painted houses, funky shops, and trade greetings with friendly Biminites.
The best way to travel abroad is to live with the locals.
One way to escape the universe in which everything is a kind of media cartoon is to write about the part of your life that doesn't feel like a cartoon, and how the cartoon comes into it.
It was a privilege to experience life beyond the cliches and to witness the vibrancy, chaos, and multiculturalism of Bengal first hand.
I don't want to live my life in a five-star hotel. That's not real life to me. You can't appreciate it.
Real human emotion is always interesting.
What I don't believe is that DVDs or HD broadcasts can be a substitute for the real thing.
Here in the United States, we speak with reverence of authentic experience. We write poems about our daddies taking us fishing and breaking our hearts by making us throw the little fish back into the river. We even tell the reader the kind of car we were driving, the year and the model, to give the impression that it’s all true. It’s because we think of ourselves as journalists of a kind. Like them, we’ll go anywhere for a story. Don’t believe a word of it. As any poet can tell you, one often sees better with eyes closed than with eyes wide open.
With so many ways to communicate at our disposal, we must not forget the transformative power of a live music experience and genuine human exchange.
Live your life, experience something, and then you're going to have a lot of things to say. But if you hang around in Hollywood, then you're going to say the same thing as everyone else - nothing.
I don't believe in false memories, like I don't believe in false songs.
