I know if I had the chance of going aboard the Titanic in those days, I would have gone – I know I would have. I adore going on the Queen Mary – I think it’s the only way to travel from New York.
I auditioned for the role of an angel in the Nativity play at school. I didn’t get it. I auditioned for Mary; didn’t get it. So I made up the character of the sheep who sat next to Baby Jesus.
I said the rosary, and I said the Our Father, as they call it in the Catholic Church. One of the things I learned in the conversion process was to say the rosary, and I had a set of rosary beads. So I said ‘Hail Mary, full of grace.’
I went to journalism school, so sometimes writing the script of ‘Being Mary Jane’ is me putting my journalism hat on.
I always liked church. I was one of those kids who was desperate for the statue of Mary to talk to me, which is a very egotistical approach to your faith. I just wanted somebody to pay attention to me.
At Olduvai, for 20 years, Mary and I had investigated and made a general survey of the overall geology.
I watched a lot of old television growing up – a lot of Nick at Nite. I watched ‘Rhoda’, ‘Mary Tyler Moore’, and ‘I Love Lucy.’ Growing up, I loved ‘My So Called Life’ and was devastated when that went off the air.
I remember one time being told I could not play in a basketball game at the College of William and Mary because I was black, even though I was playing with a United States Army team.
What Marie Antoinette was to eighteenth-century France, Mary Pickford is to twentieth-century America.
When I decided to do ‘Mary + Jane,’ one of the things that I was most excited about was the demographic that we would predominantly be reaching out to, which is 12- to 25-year-old women.
The path that went by the little house had become a road. Almost every day Laura and Mary stopped their playing and stared in surprise at a wagon slowly creaking by on that road.
Shoes? I have loved them all: ’60s pumps; white Courreges ankle boots; platform soles from the first time around, in the ’70s; more boots – ankle, calf, and knee-high; 1980s sneakers; pin heels and wedges; Mary Janes and stilettos.
What I did was take the Jesus of the Gospels, the Son of God, the Son of the Virgin Mary, and sought to make Him utterly believable, a vital breathing character.
Growing up, people are like, ‘Mary, we’ll see you at the Grammys.’ You’re like, ‘I’ll be at the Grammys.’ Then, you’re actually at the Grammys! That actually is happening; it’s not just something people are saying because they like your music. It’s real!
The last game I played in college was in the NIT against St. Mary’s. That was the first time I had come to the Oakland area. So, the last game I played in college and the first game of my NBA career were out here in the Bay Area. It’s pretty cool.
I don’t overswing any more. I can throw a punch and be right in position to punch again. No more ‘Hail Mary’ punches, where it took me five minutes to get back in position.
Her blue eyes were still beautiful, but they did not know what was before them, and Mary herself could never look through them again to tell Laura what she was thinking without saying a word.
I don’t recite prayers as a blanket rule, but having said that, I do believe that prayers like The Our Father and Hail Mary are powerful prayers.
My wife Mary and I have been married for forty-seven years and not once have we had an argument serious enough to consider divorce; murder, yes, but divorce, never.
