For a long time, I lived in West Hollywood and watched young gay men strolling through life having no idea what came before. They didn't know about the riots at Stonewall, the vice squad, the raids.
I do think Jesus would skip church on Sunday morning and instead visit the nursing homes and retirement homes where so many have abandoned their loved ones.
In Beverly Hills, around 3 P.M. on Bedford Drive, a strange rite occurs. All the men and women who have had facial surgery leave the their surgeons and walk up and down the street bandaged like mummies in Prada, waiting for their loved ones to pick them up.
My mom and dad are New Yorkers who left the tenement streets of the Bronx and came to Los Angeles when 'West Side Story' was real. They have the scars to prove it.
Most people don't really like to pose. It is difficult to get them to be present and relaxed under this kind of molecular scrutiny. I want them to understand I'm not simply painting them: I am painting them within a precise moment in time, as a shadow moves across their eyebrows. Then it is gone. The moment is over.
To make money, I did portraits . The truth is so bizarre! I'm kind of embarrassed. I was like a 19th-century pirate painter. I'd say, 'Your mom would love a painting of you!' A salesman! I'd hawk paintings.
I paint. I still do it every day. I never neglected it. It's a gift. It's almost like religion for me. It's the quickest way for me to become still.
I love the idea that movies, like 'Fast Times,' can be iconic and change people's lives in little, tiny ways.
When the Bible was first published, bathhouses were mandatory, no one could read, and only the people in the Church could write.
I live in one of Judy Garland's houses. As a fan, I never much liked Judy Garland, but living here, I feel like I have come to know her. People have given me a few of her possessions, and my neighbors have told me things that I wish I didn't know.
We buy the tabloids to witness someone else's life go wrong, so we can feel a bit better about our own troubles.
I'm savoring being in California every minute, learning that traffic is just God's way of saying 'Hi.'
Our family business was operating batting cages. The pitching machine spit out the balls at lightning speed. Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax. Whitey Ford. 50 cents for 12 pitches. Of course, my mother ran the place, and I was her slave: selling candy, hosing down the street, and the most dreaded of all jobs, feeding the pitching machine with balls.
Latin people love to dance. Nothing is more powerful than a Latin man doing 'Mambo Number 5' by himself.
Before I paint someone, I always ask, 'How much examination can your body take?' 'How much do you want me to see?'
My creativity all comes from the same place. I wear one very comfortable, large hat.
I have a nice little movie career, and I write plays and do my act.
I love the idea of metamorphosing and changing, the legalized insanity of acting.
I remember when the palm trees were short and Tomorrowland was modern.
I've always loved silent movies. I recently saw 'Tilly's Punctured Romance' at the Academy, which is the first comedy made with Charlie Chaplin in 1914, and I sat there, and I couldn't believe that the entire audience of 2,000 people were laughing that hard from a movie made in 1914 - and there were no words; it was all faces.
