I grew up in New Orleans. I had just moved into my dorm at the University of New Orleans, and I was doing laundry, and my mom called me, like, ‚We’ve got to evacuate. There’s a hurricane’s coming.‘

This thing comes to me, not by the hearing of the ear, but by my own personal experience: I know of a surety that Jesus manifests Himself unto His people as He doth not unto the world.

Housework never really bothered me… what bothered me about it later was that it was expected to be your life… when you’re a housewife, you are constantly interrupted. You have no space in your life. It isn’t the fact that you do the laundry.

Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me.

When I was little… I didn’t relate to princesses. I saw Maleficent, and I just thought she was so – she was so elegant.

I never give advice unless someone asks me for it. One thing I’ve learned, and possibly the only advice I have to give, is to not be that person giving out unsolicited advice based on your own personal experience.

There is no way I would ask others to go on a Virgin Galactic flight if I didn’t feel it was safe enough for myself.

If I ever felt like I was getting lost in the hurricane that was storming around Nirvana, I’d just go back to Virginia.

And I wound up in New Orleans for all those years and it was a great place, really a catalyst creatively.

I come from a family of 12, so I kind of got a little lost as a child.

Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them.

I have been a youngster and I know speeches are boring.

It was like being in the eye of a hurricane. You’d wake up in a concert and think, Wow, how did I get here?

So while an incredible amount of progress has been made, on this fifth anniversary, I wanted to come here and tell the people of this city directly: My administration is going to stand with you – and fight alongside you – until the job is done. Until New Orleans is all the way back, all the way.

I know from personal experience how damaging it can be to live with bitterness and unforgiveness. I like to say it’s like taking poison and hoping your enemy will die. And it really is that harmful to us to live this way.

I became a Republican in 1951, the first year I could vote.

I never smoked a cigarette until I was nine.

I was hit by a car once on my bike, but I still rode home.

I mean, I went to a Catholic boys‘ school for a year, but that was to play hockey. Religion class was quite contentious for me.

I don’t think I’ve ever read poetry, ever.

I can’t consciously explain how people feel after reading my books. All is too personal.

In America, there might be better gastronomic destinations than New Orleans, but there is no place more uniquely wonderful.

I think I had a mild case of Asperger’s as a younger guy, but that typically just wears off after a while. For some people, anyway.

People tend to think that because I’m a performer and I don’t go to a regular high school that I haven’t personally been affected by bullies. But it’s actually quite the contrary.

Ever notice how irons have a setting for permanent press? I don’t get it.

Wrestling was like stand-up comedy for me.

I believed in God when cancer come to me. Now when I speak, I speak with authority because I’ve been there.

I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described.

I couldn’t help but be impressed by the magnitude of the earthquake.

I’ve had everything pierced at some point.

I don’t do research. I never have.

A lot of preachers‘ kids are some of the most rebellious kids in the world. I never was like that.

I didn’t read so much Japanese literature. Because my father was a teacher of Japanese literature, I just wanted to do something else.

For me, education has never been simply a policy issue – it’s personal. Neither of my parents and hardly anyone in the neighborhood where I grew up went to college. But thanks to a lot of hard work and plenty of financial aid, I had the opportunity to attend some of the finest universities in this country.

When I was in my teens I had issues with OCD.

And you find as a writer there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.

I did not learn the flaws of the criminal-justice system in law school or college or by reading about it. I grew up knowing the flaws and how it was disproportionately impacting the black community. It’s not academic for me.

I have learned from personal experience that putting trust in God means there will be some unanswered questions. That was a hard lesson for me because I naturally want to understand everything… to know what’s going on so I can feel like I’m in control.

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.

All I can say is I am sensitive to discrimination on any basis because I have experienced that upset.

Places I’ve lived since then had to have some kind of uniqueness and character about them. And logically Key West, and then Down Island. So, all of that stuff sort of had it’s roots in New Orleans and went crazy.

I can honestly say – and it’s a big surprise to me – that I have never had a dream about being on the moon.

Don’t judge. I used to buy underwear because I didn’t do my laundry.

In all my days of schooling, from preschool all the way up to 12th grade, there was not one white person in my class. Literally zero.