I didn't grow up with Broadway music. My mother played Perry Como, while I listened to Andy Williams records. Later on it was Cream, Grand Funk Railroad and lots of R&B like the Isley Bros. and Parliament.

I wouldn't want to cover a Hank Williams song in a country-western way. It doesn't occur to me instinctually to re-create productions. I'm interested in re-creating songs. Putting different clothes on them.

Honestly, if you want me to keep it 100, Marilyn Manson has as much style as Kanye West and Pharrell Williams. He has a lot of style. I'm telling you, it's crazy. It might be a little darker, but it's crazy.

When I was seven, I wanted to be Esther Williams. I was drummed out of Brownies because I snuck off to the cinema to watch an Esther Williams festival - my greatest wish if I get to Hollywood is to meet her.

Winning in Monaco is always special. That track has always been good to me. I won there in Formula 3000, battled for the victory with Williams in 2006 and now I've won two of the last three grands prix there.

That's something Mary Lou Williams used to tell me: If you're not feeling right about what you're doing and you play a minor tune it all comes back, falls into place. I don't know if that's true, but I do it.

We got to go to Lucas Ranch and, at that time, my brother was still living in a condo about a mile from Robin Williams, and so I made all of the other comics jealous because I got to get a ride home with him.

When I was in my formative years, I rejected Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, and Dean Martin. I now realise they were all great artists, but at the time, as a young man, you have to clear the decks.

It was cinematographer George C. Williams who first told me about 'Sakhavu.' He said that the script was good and asked me to listen to it. Later, Sidhartha Siva called me and narrated the script over the phone.

I don't feel like I need to air out dirty laundry or any drama. But Robin Williams was one of the nicest guys I've ever met, celebrity or not. The most humble, nicest guy. I will also say he had a lot of issues.

Melbourne is where the Crown story started. It's a testament to the vision and work of Lloyd Williams and Jeff Kennett - our resort helped transform Melbourne and put the city on the map for international tourists.

Sammy Davis, Andy Williams, Tony Bennett... their records sell in the millions; when I do it, it just trickles. But for the composer and lyricist, there's a tidy bit to be made that way, too, so I don't really mind.

I met my wife and, for the next ten years, we did no films at all. She did the first movie and then I did several after. My first movie was written by Tennessee Williams and directed by Kazan and was called Baby Doll.

The Grand Ole Opry was my favorite. That's when I got to discover the stuff inside the Grand Ole Opry, like Hank Williams' clothes, the dressing room Taylor Swift stayed in and some other things. Then I got to perform.

I remain extraordinarily proud of the Vaughan Williams symphonies I recorded with the LSO, and in the 1980s and '90s, I made an almost complete cycle of orchestral works by Richard Strauss with the Vienna Philharmonic.

Hank Williams seemed, like, so total to me, so committed to the lyric. He would actually rip the ends of the words off at the, you know - the end of the sentence. It sounded like he'd bite into the word and rip it off.

I had some great role models along the way. My on-field heroes were the great Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, and Willie Mays. I wanted to be like them on the field, and I am so damn proud to join them in the Hall of Fame.

People will say I'm only where I am because of my husband or because the team might want to employ a woman, but you don't get to drive a Formula 1 car unless you're good enough, especially with a top team like Williams.

The Lotus is a couple of years newer than the Williams was, and as the pace of development in F1 cars is so quick, I expect it to be another completely different experience, but still one that I know I'm going to enjoy.

In 1999, when Ted Williams came out and saluted the fans at the All Star Game at Fenway, I had a huge lump in my throat, and the producer is yelling in my ear to talk, and I couldn't, thankfully, and it was much better.

The trailblazers are my role models in this industry: Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, James Earl Jones, and Billy Dee Williams. I keep their pictures in my trailer and try to measure to their standards every time I act.

In theatres, you're kind of disconnected. Also, it's way too big for the likes of me. Unless you're Robin Williams or someone that can fill a stage with movement and energy, it just looks like a small man on a big stage.

I was named first-team Jersey Shore by the Asbury Park Press, the paper I used to deliver as a young boy. I got to Houston and Coach Williams invited me to walk on the golf team. I was the 18th man on an 18-man golf team.

My own journey as a writer has been the discovery of different theatrical voices. Chekhov was a revelation. Tennessee Williams was another one. We read 'The Glass Menagerie' in high school, and I still remember the cover.

One of the first times I wrote about Robin Williams for 'The New York Times,' I interviewed him for a feature about 'World's Greatest Dad,' a dark comedy he starred in for his friend, the writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait.

That's why Tennessee Williams was a great writer. Poetically, dramatically, it was fantastic stuff. And with the landscape, the losers in life populating it. His short stories have got rhythm, something musical about them.

It wasn't until I was an adult reader that I began to fathom the influence of fairy tales on writers I was in love with over the years, from Louisa May Alcott to Bernard Malamud to John Cheever to Anne Frank to Joy Williams.

To this day, people are still talking about the Coral Casino's parties of the '30s, '40s, '50s - complete with antidotes of Errol Flynn's swan dives, Marlon Brando's secret cigar smoking spots, and Ester Williams' Aquacades.

My victory against Venus was the most special. She's is a multi grand slam champion; her sister is Serena Williams. I was like, 'What is going on?' I broke her five times in a row. She is one of the best servers in the game.

I was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in Summit, an upscale town in north Jersey. There was this tiny area of Summit where most of the black families lived. My parents and I lived in a duplex house on Williams Street.

People have dreams, don't they? Young people have enormous vision for their futures. I think a lot of them are realising that they won't necessarily be Robbie Williams but they might be brilliant businessmen and businesswomen.

When I was very, very young, I decided that I was gonna catalogue my times because that's what other people who I admired did. That's what Bob Dylan did, that's what Frank Sinatra did, Hank Williams did, in very different ways.

Tom Brady blew me away. Who's the most famous athlete of our generation: Tom Brady? LeBron? Messi? Ronaldo? Serena Williams? Maybe I haven't been around enough to know how the biggest stars really act. But Brady is a normal guy.

I got to see this big crazy wild man Robin Williams on the set, and got to act with him in that sense. And then I got to just have really quiet time with him in the trailer, where he's way more soft-spoken, way more introspective.

'New Jack City' was a perfect marriage of music and film. They used a lot of musicians: myself, Christopher Williams. People that were popular because of their music were given the chance to act. And the soundtrack was incredible.

I look up to Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. I'm a huge fan of their work. I also like actors who really transform themselves, like Joaquin Phoenix. And I loved Robin Williams growing up. He does comedy and drama so brilliantly.

I've gone far in the movie business, but no matter how far I go, every time I pick up the phone to call Tom Hanks or Robin Williams, I wonder if they'll call me back. And you know what? Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.

My literary heroes were mostly women writers and thinkers - Joy Williams, Joan Didion, Anne Sexton, June Jordan, Sarah Schulman, Audre Lorde, Cherrie Moraga, Christa Wolf - and much of this writing was political as well as literary.

If I'm listening to country, it's Hank Williams, George Jones, Merle Haggard and stuff like that. If people out there don't take that stuff seriously, well, they just haven't listened to it and don't know what they're talking about.

Favorite country singer of all time... Hank Williams... Well, then there's Willie Nelson. Can I have three? I can't do one. Then if I have three, I'll need five. Hank Williams for sure. Willie Nelson. Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

Because in both TV and film every story under the sun is being told, and so music shouldn't be restricted to have to follow, like, the John Williams template or something. I love John Williams, but that sound doesn't suit every story.

I thought it was terrible. I don't know who to believe. Williams was very loyal and honest. Nobody could ever say different. Sometimes, that got him into a lot of trouble. But after he died and they cut his head off, that made me sick.

I think you're very lucky to find somebody you can coexist with without straying or going mad or being angry. That's whether you're Liam Gallagher and Nicole Appleton, Robbie Williams and Ayda Field, or Tim and June from down the road.

Performing the American Music Awards and having Harrison Ford introduce you behind the John Williams orchestra for Star Wars, and then Meghan Trainor is in the front just standing up and like, 'I love you guys!' That was a huge moment.

I am thrilled to be modelling the debut collection of Always Aliza. Janet Reger was such an iconic brand throughout my modelling career, and it feels great to now be modelling her daughter's range for JD Williams almost forty years on.

When Ted Williams was here, inducted into the Hall of Fame 37 years ago, he said he must have earned it, because he didn't win it because of his friendship with the writers. I guess in that way, I'm proud to be in this company that way.

Everyone talks about the good old days, when guys were tough and quarterbacks got crushed all the time, but back in the day, there weren't defensive ends that were Mario Williams - 6-7, 300 pounds, 10 percent body fat, running a 4.7 40.

With 'Good Will Hunting,' Miramax made certain the recruited audience wasn't expecting to laugh at Robin Williams like they normally do. From my limited experience, you can really blow test screenings by conducting them in the wrong way.

I grew up falling in love with music videos and those images: Hype Williams and Mark Romanek, David Fincher and Diane Martel and Paul Hunter, just from the video side. I grew up also watching a lot of independent films and foreign films.

I was OK at tennis - good enough to beat Serena Williams, definitely... But no, I don't really like playing solo sport,s so I don't think I could have got to the top. I was just decent. Maths is my true calling in life, which is bizarre.

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