When I started making money, I immediately began buying property and fixing it up. I was always searching for the next neighborhood. The first place I bought when I was 19. I found a huge loft on the Lower East Side, almost 3,500 square feet. I did it up, turned it over, and sold it.
I feel New York is too crazy for me, especially when you go to Times Square.
I remember as a kid liking long, funny words. And often being into things like that can be perceived as square. But actually, as we know now that we’re adults, it’s really cool. The more knowledge you have, the better.
Elaine and I got married in summer 1979, we went on our honeymoon and came back for the premiere of ‘Scum.’ All of sudden my face was on billboards in Leicester Square and people were crowding outside the cinema, going mad about the film. It was a complete shock.
It’s a birthmark called nevus of Ota. It covers the whole white of my eye and darkens it. The square of the eye, the white part, is completely dark on my right eye, not just the iris.
I started Verite on savings from three years working at Applebee’s in Times Square. I was a ridiculously good waitress. I was making more money than my brother, who worked at a start-up.
I saw my father preach in Madison Square Garden, and I was a little embarrassed, I think, the first time I heard him preach. That’s my father up there, and I kind of slid down in my chair.
It took me a long time to square with the fact that none of my experiences are typical – I’m not a typical American, but I’m also not a typical Muslim.
