My dad and mom divorced when I was around ten and I didn't live with him after that though he was close by and we saw each other weekly. I wasn't really aware that he was a writer I didn't start reading his writing until I was about fifteen. It occurred to me then that my dad was kind of special he's still one of my favorite writers.

When I realized I was having trouble reading I was too embarrassed to ask for help. Some teachers believed in me but I just wasn't focused on school - I was into the music and trying to please my dad.

My dad was a football player - a soccer player - for Manchester United and I loved playing football but I also happened to be the guy in class who was pretty good at sight reading. My teacher gave me scripts and I was very comfortable.

Within our culture every school has a swimming pool. We lived on the coast. People swam in the surf. It's a very sporty nation and at that particular time anyone who had an artistic bent was very much an outsider. So if you liked reading or ideas or playing the piano then your dad viewed you as a sissy basically.

My dad is a Jack Nicholson lookalike and a frustrated performer my mother's into reading and poetry. I suppose the thing I owe them most is my confidence.

With his trademark courage and conviction President Reagan led us out of the Cold War spreading his vision of freedom resulting in the release of millions of people from the yoke of communism.

I started to send my work to journals when I was 26 which was just a question of when I got the courage up. They were mostly journals I had been reading for the previous six or seven years.

I'm not that into reading. If I'm gonna read I'm gonna read some cool sci-fi book or something not some stupid self-help book.

I don't particularly dislike any kind of person that might be reading my stuff. They like it and that's cool but I don't do the work for any kind of group in particular except for hobos who just plain kick ass and light up my life.

I don't like reading things that people say on the Internet because I know so much of it is not true. I don't want to waste my time worrying about what other people are thinking. I just want to focus on being able to do cool projects.

I wanted to escape Small Town U.S.A. To dismiss the boundaries to explore. My life experience came from watching movies TV and reading books and magazines. When your culture comes from watching TV everyday you're bombarded with images of things that seem cool places that seem interesting people who have jobs and careers and opportunities.

My whole thing is that I want to explore why you read books what's the purpose of reading and maybe that it's not that cool to hate something just because it's popular.

When you're a kid you see your parents reading the newspaper and you're like 'God why are they reading the newspaper?' When you're young you're not reading the newspaper. But there comes a time in your life when the newspaper's cool.

When I'm not writing or tweaking my computer I do embroidery. When I'm not plunging into the past tweaking or embroidering I'm reading books about history computers or embroidery.

Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading manuals without the software.

I had a very insightful friend who warned me back when I stopped reading scripts 'It's easier to change directions while you're still moving.' If you stop it's harder to get started again. I still don't think I made the wrong decision but he was right.

I hope everyone that is reading this is having a really good day. And if you are not just know that in every new minute that passes you have an opportunity to change that.