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.
Some guys are quiet, and that works for them. Some guys are loud, and like to talk, and that's fine. Just get the job done.
Some guys play so straight, and that may be their thing; like, a lot of guys are good playing like that. I can't play like that. I have to flair out. I have to yell. I gotta scream. I gotta talk trash - that's how I get myself going.
One day I was at the park with my family, all my cousins and stuff, in Frankston... We were all just singing a song and my aunty was like 'oh guys, she can actually hold a note.' I think that's the earliest memory of someone actually pointing me out as someone that has an ability to sing. I was probably like 7 years old.
God doesn't seem to talk to people like he used to. Who's he talking to now? I don't know. Then I'm walking down the street in Manhattan one day, and I realize maybe it's those guys you see walking down the street talking to themselves. You know, those guys that are like, 'I can't! No, I can't!' Maybe the other side of that conversation is God going, 'You're the new leader.' 'No I can't!' They're not crazy - they're reluctant prophets.
All these guys are just like me. They were a rookie at one time in their life. They treat me like I'm one of the guys. I look at Greg Maddux and saw him sitting over there and said, 'Man, that's Greg Maddux. That guy is going to be in the Hall of Fame.' Now I sit there and talk to him like a teammate. It's a reality check, and it's a great feeling at the same time.
I see so many guys, really athletic guys, wearing pleats and I just shake my head. Like, Tiger Woods used to wear pleated pants! I'm like, 'C'mon, Tiger!'
I'm a big-guy guy. I look at guys like Shaq, Ben Wallace, guys who play inside and play tough. I don't pay much attention to the little guys; I like the big guys who do the dirty work.
When you think about the guys who started Twitter, and the Google guys, and the Facebook guys and the Napster guys, and the Microsoft guys, and the Dell guys and the Instagram guys, it's all guys. The girls, they're being left behind.
The initial thought is like, 'Damn. Most guys used to retire after the Achilles injury.' Nobody really but Dominique Wilkins has come back to be the same person as he used to be or better; but now, more and more guys come back and they're healthy.
I don't like guys who will lie down and take it. I want someone who'll fight back. I like people who can argue well.
Guys like Rey Mysterio Jr., Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, guys like that, they've inspired me. They made me want to do this. Those guys were three of the top cruiserweights that you can name.
The great thing that guys like Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and the Google guys have in common is they treat their technology like it's art, and I suppose in the hands of virtuosos like them, it is.
You take 5 white guys and you take 5 black guys and put em together for a week and what you won't have is 5 blacks guys talking like, 'Golly gee, we really won that big basketball game' but you will have 5 white guys talking like 'Yo slick, whuzzup...we be shootin hoops and mad playin, slammed those mofos
I just like guys who have an edge to them. But it could go either way. Like, I have been into the surfer blond frat guys, and then there's definitely a thing where I like the dark, mysterious bad boy.
In 1977, I had Paul Rivera hotrod six Fender Deluxes for me. At that time, a lot of studio guys in L.A. were using those - not so much live guys but studio guys. They had terrific tone and great technique, and I was like, 'Well, I like having terrific tone even though I don't have any technique.'