I’ve often found, as I did with ‘Bourne,’ where I was inspired by the events of Iran-Contra when I designed the CIA for the ‘Bourne’ franchise, that the reality of how things work is usually more compelling than the superficial, made-up version that Hollywood sometimes does.
I don’t have a favorite song that I’ve written. But I do have a favorite song: ‘Always on My Mind,’ the Willie Nelson version. If I could sing it like he do, I would sing it every night. I like the story it tells.
I think differently, I think it’s about reaching everybody on every different plane and every different level, and if I could remix the song and do a dance remix, that’s great. If I could do a classical version, that’ll be great too. It’s all just about expression.
Rave music sounds like an electronic disco version of ’30s Universal monster movies.
The mutated Marfan gene creates a defective version of fibrillin, a protein that provides structural support for soft tissues like blood vessels. Marfan victims often die young, in fact, after their aortas grow threadbare and rupture.
‘Cry Baby’ is like this fairytale version of me. A lot of it is based on real events, and some of it is made up to make it more whimsical.
I want to be free to be any version of me I feel like being. I don’t want to be McDonald’s that serves the same food every time.
Music television is all about the media-oriented version of what it is to be a rock star; it’s not about what Bob Dylan or Jimi Hendrix were about – which included great images, sure, but they had spiritual and political and revolutionary content, too.
My favorite-ever version of ‘King Lear’ is the 1971 film by Peter Brooks. He has this enormous fur thing, and it adds enormous gravitas.
I think by around the time I was about 8 or 9, the idea of filmmaking probably took hold. I made little Super 8 extravaganzas when I was a kid, the first being my own version of ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ and where I played all the parts except for Juliet.
If ‘Jingle Belle’ harkens back to anything, it’s sort of the Harvey Comics. Not really ‘Archie,’ but more of a teenage version of what Harvey Comics would have become, with the type of fantasy wonderland of her and her various friends.
The L.A Trilogy is a series of three novels starring Ray, a robot detective, and his boss, a computer called Googol. Set in an alternative version of 1960s Los Angeles, each book will be more or less standalone but together will form an overarching story arc with ‘Brisk Money’ as the origin story.
Each couple’s version of intimacy is so fascinating to me. A friend will tell me about her marriage, and I’ll think, ‘Yikes, they have horrible communication! They’re going to get divorced!’ And then I’ll hear about them at another time and think, ‘Wow, they love each other so much!’
Not everybody wants to be Mark Zuckerberg, but everybody wants to create a little piece of the American dream, the Silicon Valley version. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
I personally am a very big fan of ‘Romeo + Juliet.’ It had a visceral power to it that I thought was just exhilarating. It was a very arresting and very disturbing and deeply compelling version of the play.
I can remember when I was a baby and my mother was there watching the show. I went and bought 100 episodes and watched them. I respect it so much that the sitcom itself and Ed Norton; I’m not playing Ed Norton but my version of it, cause I’m a black man.
Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino, Russell Crowe – these leading men. These are the ones I grew up with. And Hugh Jackman. I love everything that these guys are doing. It’s kind of been my mission to be an Asian-American version of that.
I think the power of Stieg Larsson’s stories is that he has the guts to show the hidden spots in the side of Sweden. That gave us a push to say that for the first time. That they can’t have with the American version.
My favourite game is wiffle ball, a fake version of baseball with a plastic ball and bat that’s really for kids.
Sometimes I have a melody in my head; sometimes it’s just a verse. I read lines from a book or movies that I watch and grab a few quotes and start writing on paper. From there, I record a really rough version and work on the song.
People tell me I’m like the country version of Justin Timberlake. Actually, the other day someone told me I was an unathletic version of Justin Timberlake, and I was like, ‘I’ll take that.’
The reality is that a consumer culture which chucks out its iPhones for a new version every nine months is completely unsustainable, because Earth has already reached the tipping point. ‘The General Strike’ attempts to personalize these issues and encourage listeners to look for a new model.
I love ‘Peter Pan’ to death. It’s one of the most influential pieces of storytelling in my life. It made a huge impact on how I grew up. I love the cartoon. I love the 2003 version.
My focus isn’t Hollywood; my focus is using Hollywood as an example. Because what happens here does happen everywhere. It’s just a really concentrated and tense version here.
All this fashion stuff – who’s cool now – is just a bigger version of the cool kids versus the nerds.
Here is a guiding principle: If a business collects data on consumers electronically, it should provide them with a version of that data that is easy to download and export to another Web site.
Since the littoral combat ship plays a vital role, we want to make sure we’re buying the correct version.
I am pleased to say that as I get older, I get less and less like the sitcom ‘Miranda.’ She is really a clown character, a heightened version of the 20-something me.
Years ago, I was asked to come up to do a store signing in Vermont. The short version is the two younger guys who own the store pick me up at the airport and start driving me around Vermont, showing me the sights and the textile mills and the restaurants, and the punchline is there’s no store. There is no store!
I started my first company when I was in my college dorm as a senior with two of my really good friends. We started a company that became SparkNotes.com. You know CliffsNotes? SparkNotes is a modern-day version of that.
I remember seeing a stage version of Plato’s ‘Symposium’ and being really moved because it was written by a man rather than a culture.
I would love to play ‘Funny Girl’ or ‘Evita,’ but I idolize the women who have played those parts. I don’t know if there needs to be another version of those shows.
People sometimes ask me if it is a sin in the Church of Emacs to use vi. Using a free version of vi is not a sin; it is a penance. So happy hacking.
I learned about this talent show on TV that was basically the Estonian version of ‘American Idol.’ So I lied about my age, went on the show, and won. I think my story is about working really hard and dreaming really big.
Eventually, somewhere – be it on the Internet or somewhere else – I will host some version of ‘The Daily Show.’
I fell into acting because I was really shy, and so at night after work, I took public speaking and improv classes, and I started going to auditions sort of as a dare. That was my version of ‘Fear Factor.’
The best version of surfing is not competing, I think. It’s just… it’s perfect. You’re perfectly present. You’re perfectly in the moment. You’re perfectly not thinking about anything else in the world. You’re just surfing. You’re surfing away with your friends or your family, and that’s it. You’re just there.
My version of ‘Georgia’ became the state song of Georgia. That was a big thing for me, man. It really touched me. Here is a state that used to lynch people like me suddenly declaring my version of a song as its state song. That is touching.
The idea that historians write the definitive version of something that will last for all time is less current than it used to be.
Being teased and losing my self value eventually ended up inspiring me to be a better version of myself.
Real life is messy, and drama is a shaped version of real life.
When I was a 7-year-old girl, in my bedroom, on my karaoke machine, I would sing ‘On My Own’ or do a one-woman version of ‘Les Miserables.’
It’s a cliche, but Americans are puritanical. In their movies, they are scared of sex, but they overindulge in violence. I could have cut a G-rated version of ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’ that would have pleased the American ratings board, but it would have been five minutes long.
When anyone pitches me – and I’ve heard it a million times: ‘It’s the black Seinfeld,’ or, ‘It’s the new version of something that’s already been successful’ – I immediately shut it off. I won’t ever entertain doing ‘the new version of such-and-such.’
When I was a kid, I knew the black and white version of ‘Jane Eyre,’ and I guess I became interested in the idea of romantic love – of unrequited love and the tragedies of that; of what are the important things in life; what should one value over other materials.
Something I’ve really been wanting to do, ever since ‘Six Feet Under’ ended, was create my own version of this idealized writer’s room as well as the ideal family.
When like-minded people, talking mostly with one another, end up thinking a more extreme version of what they thought before they started to talk… If you put a bunch of rebels in a room and ask them to discuss rebellion, they’ll get more extreme.
I want you to hear a new version of Dueling Banjos. Anyone else is welcome.
