I discovered John Fante when I was 17 years old - strangely, not through Charles Bukowski, but through William Saroyan, who was his drinking buddy.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Charles James was a dear friend of mine when I was a little boy - 17, 18. He was mad as a hatter. I had no idea how famous he was.
In the sixties, everyone you knew became famous. My flatmate was Terence Stamp. My barber was Vidal Sassoon. David Hockney did the menu in a restaurant I went to. I didn't know anyone unknown who didn't become famous.
I grew up with the one of the most famous fathers in the world in the 1960s and '70s. He passed away in 1984, and as time went on, people didn't know him. That blew me away.
I met Ray Charles at 14, and he was 16. But he was like a hundred years older than me.
I met Charlie Trotter before I actually saw him in person; I was 24 when I first opened the pages of Charlie's cookbook 'Charlie Trotter's' and was greeted by a man I would know and admire for the next 20 years.
When I was a kid, I always looked up to people like B.B. King and Ray Charles.
I was very famous as a young man and I celebrated both the good and bad times with drinking.
If I was discovered by anyone, it would be Stephen O'Neil, who saw me in a play at Williamstown and introduced me to my team who I'm still with today. He was the first person to introduce me to the film and TV world. Other than that, I just assumed I would be a theater actor my whole life.
I met John when I was 18 and I was in my first John Waters film when I was 19.
I had first heard about Alan Turing when I was a teenager. I've known about him since I was a kid, and I always wanted to write about him.