Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.
I knew I wanted to be a rapper when I was, like, 5.
Elvis came along when I was 10. My father gave me a bass ukulele. I taught myself how to play from a book to play some chords, so I was laying down 'Hound Dog' and things like that when I was 10 years old in 1955. That's the way I was. My ear was glued to the radio. I knew right then what I wanted to do.
When I was a baby, my mom used to have a dance school, and she used to teach classes there. We didn't have money for a babysitter, so she always brought me with her to the dancing school. Back then, I was already watching and listening to Michael Jackson for a long time.
I kind of grew up on musicals, specifically, for whatever reason. They're something that really attracted me as a child.
When I was, like, 12, I remember grabbing a mic, pretending it was a guitar, and performing in front of my friends. I didn't know at the time I wanted to be an artist.
The first Broadway show I ever heard was the recording of Carousel, and it was a very vivid experience.
Even when I was a little girl, I remember going to the Museum of Modern Art. I think my parents took me there once or twice. And what I really remember is the design collection.
I started rapping since, like, 14. But I've been obsessed with rap from when I was 11. I heard 'Baby Don't Cry,' I'll never forget.
I grew up listening to a lot of Snoop Dogg and the Wu-Tang Clan. Actually, I was a huge Wu-Tang fan.
When I was maybe three years old, I was obsessed with this song 'Leader of the Band' by Dan Fogelberg. My mom took me to the mall and bought me a 45 of it. We would listen to that song all the time.
I've been a fan of Jack Vance since before I was in high school.
I never smoked a cigarette until I was nine.
When I was nine, I was passing by a drum class and saw them playing and I was moved. That's why I started making music.
I got my inspiration when I sat down with my father, at about eight or nine years old, and watched 'The Rumble in the Jungle.'
Believe it or not, one of the first poets I was aware of was Yeats. I recited 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' at a verse speaking competition when I was eight or nine.
At an early school, when I was about 5, they asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Everyone said silly things, and I said I wanted to be an actress. So that was what I wanted to be, but what I was, of course, was a writer.
Gene Autry was the most. It may sound like a joke - Go and have a look in my bedroom, It's covered with Gene Autry posters. He was my first musical influence.
When I played 'Annie' in the seventh grade, I knew from then on that I wanted to be an actor.
I've always had a fascination for animals. I loved watching them, and even then I thought of them as beings rather than pets. I call it a birth affect!
I wasn't one of those kids who stole Richard Pryor records. I wasn't a comedy-nerd kid. I had no concept of stand-up. Actually, the only inkling of stand-up I had was I read one of Paul Reiser's books when I was, like, 12. I found it at a yard sale, and I carried it around with me for six years.
When I was three years old, one of the first albums I ever heard was Michael Jackson's 'Off the Wall.'
I was 10 years old when I first heard Ginuwine. I remember being at a friend's house, and the music video came on. I was just like, 'What is that?' I was just kind of drawn from there.
The other writer who had a very important early influence on me when I was about 17 was C.S. Lewis.
I've never done drugs. That's because I saw this stuff literally every day when I was 3 or 4 years old.
