This is why universities, and civil society more generally, are so important for a democracy like ours, founded on a genuine idealism that we have a hard time holding on to. They provide a space to question whatever we are doing in the name of things we say we believe in or might believe in.
My parents were not poor, I mean we were a very average middle-class family of academics, but my grandfather happened to have built house literally next to one of Kolkata's largest slum.
Every nation necessarily inhabits a morally compromised space. All too often our ideals seem to be held to ransom by what we believe, rightly or wrongly, to be objective reality.
I literally grew up in drama. I used to watch drama - the catharsis of the play - then see drama at home.
What happened with 'Mad Men' was I had just had my child, I was in a very literally and creatively fertile time in my life, and I wasn't leaving the house much. So when 'Mad Men' came along, I was so excited to leave the house. Like, I get to go do this beautiful thing.
My first album after 'American Idol' I did with Desmond - we paid for it together, and we literally were together working on it every day for a year and half, just writing. We wrote in New York, Nashville, L.A., Sweden - we wrote with some other amazing songwriters like Diane Warren, too.
I'm naturally a nice person. I'm not trying to have any problems with people. I'm done with the drama and trouble. I want a stress-free life.
I can literally walk around at our own shows, and nobody recognizes me.
I've never really broken this down before, but, in movies, you almost have no connection to fans. And if you do TV, you're kind of connected, but they know you as the TV name not your real name. If you do radio, there's more of a bond there. And then if you do a podcast it's like you're literally inside of your fans.
Ring of Honor always has a great general idea of what they think I need, and generally, we agree pretty quickly on what I want to do.
