I'm really easily affected by horror films. I have pretty strong reactions to them.
There are things that neuroscience is useful for in terms of understanding behavior, but there are also things it is not all that useful for, like understanding the nuances of our reactions to poetry.
Since I first picked up the violin, I've been very interested in tone and texture: I would have very visceral reactions to the texture of a snare drum or a pedal steel guitar or a violin.
Perhaps America works like this: Presidencies swing, as reactions to each other, like a pendulum. My optimistic belief is it is how we keep our country in balance.
Through years and years of playing to various audiences, what I've learned is - and I think quite a few actors will agree with me - we're not always the best judge of that audience's reactions or not. And we discover, to our amazement, at the end of the show, they bring the house down with applause, and we thought, 'No way tonight,' you know.
We've always wanted to do things with kids with the surprise element that we do with celebrities, because their reactions are fantastic and sweet and charming and lovely.
That's so different in Hong Kong when I'm using my own mother language, I can treat the line in one thousand different ways, with many different reactions.
Cynicism is the easiest of all reactions, right? But it's also so disappointing and self-defeating.