My father was a lorry driver, very rarely at home. The house was run by my mother, and because there were 10 or so kids, there was no time for individual attention. It was about survival. It was about where the next meal was coming from.
We cannot be any stronger in our foreign policy for all the bombs and guns we may heap up in our arsenals than we are in the spirit which rules inside the country. Foreign policy, like a river, cannot rise above its source.
The course that I have uniformly pursued, ever since I became a missionary, has been rather peculiar. In order to become an acceptable and eloquent preacher in a foreign language, I deliberately abjured my own. When I crossed the river, I burnt my ships.
A man needs to be polite, not just to me but to everyone. I watch that. How does he treat the waiter? How does he treat the coat-check girl? How does he treat the driver?
Of course, De Niro has had a long history of memorable performances. Everyone knows 'Taxi Driver' and 'Raging Bull,' but 'Awakenings' really did something for me.
As a young kid I wanted to be a truck driver.
In April 2001, I visited Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky. The heaps of mastodon and other large skeletons that used to loom out of the brackish backwaters along the Ohio River here are long gone, though the occasional big bone sometimes comes to light.
Some people admire the aspirational rock star figures whose biopics make it to TV, the people they watched as kids and made them want to play football for England. For some comics, it is often the Doug Stanhopes and the Joan Rivers.
A couple of fans followed my sister and I all the way to the airport from a live show that we did in Canada. Our driver had to pull over and fake a turn to lose them, but they actually showed up in the airport just before we went through customs.
I tell all the rookies that come into our series and all the young drivers they can come ask me anything at any time, and we'll give them the straight shoot.
