Growing up in the hot Last Vegas desert, all I wanted was to be free. I would daydream about traveling the world, living in a place where it snowed, and I would picture all of the stories that I would go on to tell.

You don't always have to have the most amazing story. It's learning to share the story you have that counts.

I'm learning how strong I am, how resilient I am. I'm learning my weaknesses.

Dancers know how to move their arms and their hands. But I don't know the first thing about how to move my arms and hands gracefully.

Maybe I thought too much about picking up the money and not enough about the really good parts.

Small- and medium-sized businesses need access to a diverse range of finance options, including non-bank lending. These new forms of finance are still small in scale today but they should, over time, bring additional choice and greater competition to the lending market.

You know, I didn't have enough money to quit my day job... the myth of the major label deal. Nowadays, you have a tour bus and a stylist and all this stuff. But back then, no way.

My entire childhood was steeped in poverty. For me, poverty, in a way, was the first inspiration of my life, a commitment to do something for the poor.