Quotes About Memories

Watching television in those days was not the same experience as it is today. After years of listening to radio, we found the black-and-white images mesmerizing.

I was watching TV, and there was this oldies-but-goodies film fest, and 'Lucas' came on. I was like, 'Oh my God, I'm an oldie!'

I remember when I was in my late teens just getting rid of lots of records, realizing I only ever listened to them when I was reading, or watching TV, or doing something else.

My dad influenced my musical taste. I grew up listening to Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones and a bunch of rock music from the '60s. Now, instead of watching TV, I'll play a record from start to finish.

And then I always find myself going back to watch 'A Different World' reruns. I bought each and every single season of 'A Different World', so most of the time, if I'm watching TV then I'm watching 'A Different World'.

One of my earliest memories is of seeing my mother in her beach chair, reading a book under an umbrella by the water's edge while my sisters and I played beside her. Of all the life lessons she taught me, that is one of my favorites: to take time at a place I love, restore my spirit with books and the beach.

When I was a kid, we went to St. Augustine, Fla., and I was lying on the couch one night with a Q-tip, cleaning my ear out after I'd taken a shower. I hit my arm on something, jabbed the Q-tip through my ear drum, busted my ear drum and couldn't get back in the water the rest of the time we were there.

I keep a picture of my beloved children close by. Also, water and plenty of pads and pens.

I nearly drowned in a park pond when I was six years old and I've been terrified of water ever since.

If I close my eyes, I can remember the first apartment where I lived with my family in Newark, N.J., in the late 1930s. The rooms were lined up like train cars - you had to go through one to get to another - and there wasn't any heat or hot water.

It's not about being rich, but everyone back home has a pool. And I was a total water baby. My mom couldn't get me out - she'd put my dinner plate at the end of the pool, and I'd eat my meals in the water.

We had a house in Baga, Goa, that we would visit every Christmas vacation. It was called Love House. The toilet was outside the house. We had no water; someone had to get it from the well. My dad was huge then, but he could walk, go to the local tavern, have a beer and take an auto back.

I was on the beach every summer. That was the pleasant part of my childhood because we were right by the sea. We'd take a picnic, and I'd spend hours in the water until I turned blue. You couldn't get me out of there.

I remember going up and doing 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' with Paul Simon, Santana playing up there with us.

The sea was at the bottom of my road, and I seemed to spend my childhood in it or on it, hearing, tasting, smelling it. Now, still, I need to be near water as often as possible.

I lived in a small town. It was 2,000 people in Canada. A little river that went through it and we swam in the - you know, there was a lot of water around. Niagara Falls was about four or five miles away.

I performed in Redlands, Calif., at Splash Kingdom. It reminded me of the water parks I went to as a kid. I was like, 'I want to ride the rides!'

When I was 6 years old, we were lighting firecrackers in the backyard and started a fire. My brother ran out and was pulling water from the creek and pouring it on the fire with a 7-Eleven Big Gulp cup.

When I travel, I always take my Winsor & Newton watercolor kit, which is the size of a pack of cigarettes when folded up. I bought my first one in the 1980s. It was handy to bring on trips, and I packed it into a leather pouch along with a couple of brushes, a pencil, an eraser and paper.

When I was nine, my great grandfather, a landscape painter, taught me to mix colors. With his strong hand surrounding my small one, he guided the brush until a calla lily appeared as if by magic on a page of textured watercolor paper.

I think of myself as the little girl Renoir painted with the watering can. I loved the garden colors.

You had to go to a different part of town from where I was to get Muddy Waters singles. I had him on singles.

I met John when I was 18 and I was in my first John Waters film when I was 19.

It was there that, through a mutual friend, I met John Waters - proving what I've always said: you meet the best people on field trips.