I was very aware of the fact we were so out of fashion when I shot 'Chicago.' And I was trepidatious as to whether it would be seen or embraced by anybody, but I've never stopped believing in the genre. There's nothing like it. It's American-born.
A man never apologizes for the fact that he has to work. He might say, 'Hey, I am so sorry my hours were long today,' but he'd never feel he has to explain the very fact that he has a career. Once I stopped apologizing, I noticed both my kids also stopped complaining and asking me 'why' I worked.
I've had ups and downs in my career, and if you look at it as a bookmaker, the odds of me becoming a world champion were never in my favour, but I never stopped believing in myself and never stopped trying.
I think a big part of 'American Idol' that scares people and actually has, I'm sure, stopped people from trying out is the fact that you do have to do things that are necessarily not your genre.
I was always very curious about what a scientist's life was like when I was young. Of course, when I was young, you didn't have very many opportunities to find out with no web, TV. I was very lucky: I was born in the city of Chicago and went to the University of Chicago where I actually saw things.
Just as many who were brought up to think of God as a bearded old gentleman sitting on a cloud decided that when they stopped believing in such a being they had therefore stopped believing in God, so many who were taught to think of hell as a literal underground location full of worms and fire...decided that when they stopped believing in that, so they stopped believing in hell. The first group decided that because they couldn't believe in childish images of God, they must be atheists. The second decided that because they couldn't believe in childish images of hell, they must be universalists.
I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.
The moral issues with which Marcus struggles would be, as he points out, unchanged whether the universe were mechanical and devoid of meaning or value or ruled by deity or Providence; whether the will were in fact free or determined; whether there were or were not a future life, or any even fugitive rewards and punishments at all.
Natural-born American means you don`t have to be naturalized. You were born to an American mother, like President Obama, no matter where you were born.
When the new country came out ten to 15 years ago, people my age were almost too old. But it never stopped me. I never stopped writing. I never stopped recording.
As an actor and as a performer, I'm very much aware of the fact that my job is to change both physically and emotionally and that was what hurt the most - the fact that people were judging me based on nothing.
I think the biggest shift is the way people look at and have access to fashion. It's already old the minute you've seen it, and we've already moved on. Fashion has become very in and out. Back in the days when I started, you would wait for Vogue to come out, and that is where you would see what people wore that month. Now we are looking at what someone is wearing this second.
I never stopped grinding. I never stopped hustling. I never stopped working. I just kept moving. It has nothing to do with the money or anything like that. It's just that I love music.
'Believing' cannot tip the scales in making a historical judgement about whether something really happened. I can choose to believe that George Washington threw a silver dollar across the Rappahannock, but my believing that he did it has nothing to do with whether or not he really did do it. So also with the story of Jesus walking on water: Believing that he did it has nothing to do with whether he really did do it. 'Belief' cannot be the basis for historical conclusions; it has no direct relevance.
It's very hard to turn your back once you're aware of what's going on, and you're aware of the injustices, and you're aware of the civilian casualties. It's much easier if you have no idea and you've never seen it.
Anybody who has been to Chicago has a very positive view. But not everybody has come to Chicago, and in many ways, Chicago is an undiscovered treasure. It punches below its weight internationally.
I did Phone Booth, and that was shot very, very quickly, but that was Joel Schumacher, who's shot so many movies that, if anybody can figure out how to do it in a couple of days, it's him.