I have always deeply desired to be an honest man who said it when I struggled, stumbled and worried. I longed to be a man with real friends - friends who knew me at my worst and loved me.
I just loved him and he loved me... He was a most humble man, the most decent man I've ever met in my life and he always looked for the best in people to find positives and he said something to me that always remained with me. He said if you believe in the fatherhood of God you must necessarily believe in the brotherhood of man, it follows necessarily and even though I left the church and was not religious, that truth remained with me.
My true friends have always given me that supreme proof of devotion, a spontaneous aversion for the man I loved.
I have been so deeply, profoundly lucky to have friends in my life that have always just loved me exactly as I am no matter what time period I'm in.
I would vote for the man who's lived life, who's done different occupations, who's been out in the real world and struggled to make a living, struggled to raise a family, struggled with life as it exists. So I'd vote for experience, honest experience.
The books I read are the ones I knew and loved when I was a young man and to which I return as you do to old friends.
I grew up with white friends, Asian friends - Vietnamese, Chinese, Pacific Islanders. I had Hispanic friends, not just Mexican friends, but Guatemalan friends, Honduran friends, and we knew the difference, you know?
For a moment in time, a man knew me for who I was and, without reservation, loved me for who I was. How can I now live knowing no one will ever see me again in such a perfect light? Hear me as I wish to be heard? Love me as [he] loved me?
Win or lose, I always like to get back to my friends and family. They keep me grounded. When I'm home with my friends, I'm always the same Gabriel. I'm no better or worse in their eyes because of my results. It's good to be with your true friends. It always reminds me of where I'm from and who I am.
My dad said to me growing up: 'When all is said and done, if you can count all your true friends on one hand, you're a lucky man.'
The making of friends who are real friends, is the best token we have of a man's success in life.
The making of friends, who are real friends, is the best token we have of a man's success in life.
He gave me a picture of himself when I was 14 and it said, 'To John Carter: My Best friend, Dad.' That meant so much to me. We were best friends, but we struggled.
Sure, we were friends who exchanged soulful glances, friends who slept in a bed filled with sexual tension, friends who found any excuse to touch, but I worried that we'd never take that perilous leap of faith toward becoming a real couple, a permanent team.
I have the best friends in the world. I miss my friends, I miss my family but they always come out and visit me. I went to boarding school in the country so there's no real differentiation between family and friends. I went there from when I was 8 until I was 17 - it was insane.
One of my sons has a tattoo on his ankle that was meant to be Africa but looks like Australia, one of my sons mumbles, and one of my sons is a gay man. I'll be honest, there's been loads of nights when me and my wife have sat up and worried and worried and worried, 'What are we going to do if he doesn't stop mumbling?'
It's not hard for me to be honest with my fans because that's what I set out to do from the beginning - I've based my entire career off of just trying to do that for them - but I always kind of forget that my real life friends can hear my music and they can watch my interviews if they want and that's when I get kind of like- "oh..." - I don't necessarily sit down and talk to my friends about all the things that I write my music about, because it's easier for me to write music than to sit and talk to my friends about it sometimes- it's almost like writing in a diary.