Why are tall guys always attracted to short women? Not just moderately short women, either... Tiny women. Polly Pockets. The tallest guys always-always-always go for the shortest girls. Always. It's like they're so infatuated with their own height that they want to be with someone who makes them feel even taller. Someone they can tower over. A little doll that will make them feel even bigger and stronger.
I have always been amazed guys read my books and seem to enjoy them. Because I've raised boys, I like to think I can get inside a guy's mind. I try and make the boys talk like guys, sound like guys and react like guys.
So many of my friends have always been women growing up... I always feel slightly more comfortable around women because with guys in general there's always more of a danger zone... it's very aggressive sometimes the way guys act with each other, putting each other down and calling each other names, so I was always too sensitive for that and used to hang out with the girls. And they were always really funny to me.
Guys who are my friends, guys who I visit their homes, I don't feel like fighting those guys.
I know, for me, that I have always been very conscious of how I dress when I go to the studio, I'm very conscious of my body language when I'm working - a lot of times, I'm the only female in the room. It's a very male-dominated profession. I'm always around guys. Guys are going to try you all day, and they're going to flirt all day.
Boxer guys are very tough and they play a very tough game, but its a game. Karate guys, tae kwon doe guys, kickboxers or judo guys, they are very tough guys and a lot of heart and a lot of training, but its very specifically as a sport. It's not a fight. A fight is everything goes.
I want to be very authentic when I perform, because I feel like I owe that to people listening. You can't go through the motions on music like this. You are making people feel a certain way, that you are not feeling yourself. It's like saying "I want you guys to cry, but I don't really care," which isn't right.
I don't feel that old, but when I talk to these kids, I do feel old. Because I'm talking about taxes and all this other stuff that is very, very boring. And these guys are talking about music, and I'm like, 'Oh, I remember those days.'
For me, I feel like I'm slowly accomplishing what I've always wanted to do. I've always dreamed really big, and my mom planted that in all three of my siblings: 'You guys can do anything.'
For me the music community was always like a model for what could be. The way people would play together, just harmony and being - old guys and young guys, black guys and white guys. It was setting an example for what the rest of us could be.
I feel like when it comes to rap - like, real rap music - and knowing the pioneers of rap, I feel like there's no competition for me in the NBA. Other guys can rap, but they're not as invested or as deep into actual music as I am and always have been. I think that might be what the difference is. I'm more wanting to be an artist.
Back in the day, I was a Royce Gracie fan and a fan of Tank Abbott. It's always the different-looking guys that you want to root for. Then there were guys like Mark Coleman and Randy Couture, so for me to get in there and fight against guys like that is pretty cool.
I'm one of these guys who always feel like the outsider, you know? I'm always longing to be part of something, you know?
Sometimes you get the rap of, 'Don't always play hard,' or, 'Just doing it for the money.' But there are guys that genuinely love the game of basketball and are always playing it and are always out there. There are guys that work hard and actually understand the game and are very knowledgeable off the court as well.
I tend to stick to my team guys, the guys I train with here at Greg Jackson's, because when they're in there, I feel like I'm in there.
I feel like gender lines are changing. A couple of years ago, it wasn't nearly as OK for guys to like girly-sounding music. But all of a sudden a lot of my guys friends who would like have been really disdainful of female singers are way more accepting.