We didn't have much money growing up, so we hopped around L.A. a lot in the '70s, '80s and '90s. I'm very familiar with the shifting culture there.

If I were to do a movie about Apollo 13, I'd be at NASA studying what it took to go into space. It's part of your job to go deep, to interview the right people.

I love a challenge. So when I did 'Friday,' I didn't want to do another comedy back-to-back. With 'Set It Off,' that was a little different from 'The Negotiator' and 'The Italian Job.' So for me, it's all about challenge. It's all about challenge and about just learning.

You have to enjoy yourself when you go to the movies. People don't want to spend their hard earned money to simply go see a history lesson.

But that was war. Just about all he could find in its favor was that it paid well and liberated children from the pernicious influence of their parents.

I see some artists who disown songs they love when they don't chart well. Would you do that to your children? Trust me, children ain't gonna do all the right things, so are you gonna disown them or embrace them and say, 'No, you're still my child. You didn't go out and do the right thing, but I'll still love you in the same way?'

My parents elected me president of the family when I was 4. We actually had an election every year, and I always won. I'm an only child, and I could count on my mother's vote.

Both of my children - my daughter Caroline, a public school teacher, and my son Elliot, an Army Ranger - are dedicating their lives to public service; thus, they have inspired my own decision to run for Congress.