I don't say, 'Francis Ford Coppola, what a wonderful Italian-American director.' I judge him based on his film, his craft, his art. That's the way I feel I should be dealt with in this industry.
I grew up in the Midwest, and I was a short, fat, little Jewish kid... but it was just different. People didn't understand, so I had to deal with it. One day, I physically dealt with it, and it never happened again. I'm not saying that's the way to do it, but you have to stand up for yourself, period, end of story.
When things have gone really wrong in my life, I've cried like a child. I have really, really cried. I cry it out. Two-three days I cry, and then I'm like, enough, time to deal with reality and figure a way out. This is the way I have dealt with everything.
I started as a visual artist and I've always dealt with music in that same sort of way.
I keep living life as it's dealt to me. Sometimes, it's not dealt 100 percent. Sometimes it's dealt on the low '30s.
While I've had plenty of ups and downs, dealt with my share of failure, and struggled through emotionally difficult periods, I'm fundamentally an optimist.
You can't have self-pity. At some point, you have to say, 'These are the cards I've been dealt, and I'm going to play them.'
God, he deals you blows that at sometimes you think you can't handle and in the last year there have been things that we thought we couldn't handle but we've dealt with it up until this point.
You have to realize that myself and others that have been wrongfully convicted of crimes, we've dealt with the situation. You realize that you're not going to survive in prison or progress as a human being if you allow yourself to continue to hold on to this negative energy.
The best way to win against the intolerable is to tolerate them, for this they have seldom dealt with. Your indulgence may soften their malice and open their eyes to more honorable ways.
