Taylor Negron

“To make money, I did portraits . The truth is so bizarre! I'm kind of embarrassed. I was like a 19th-century pirate painter. I'd say, 'Your mom would love a painting of you!' A salesman! I'd hawk paintings.”

“As an American roughly the same age as Barack Obama, I will not be ridiculed or reduced to a stereotype. I want to age appropriately.”

“I've always loved silent movies. I recently saw 'Tilly's Punctured Romance' at the Academy, which is the first comedy made with Charlie Chaplin in 1914, and I sat there, and I couldn't believe that the entire audience of 2,000 people were laughing that hard from a movie made in 1914 - and there were no words; it was all faces.”

“Most people don't really like to pose. It is difficult to get them to be present and relaxed under this kind of molecular scrutiny. I want them to understand I'm not simply painting them: I am painting them within a precise moment in time, as a shadow moves across their eyebrows. Then it is gone. The moment is over.”

“Before I paint someone, I always ask, 'How much examination can your body take?' 'How much do you want me to see?'”

“I live in one of Judy Garland's houses. As a fan, I never much liked Judy Garland, but living here, I feel like I have come to know her. People have given me a few of her possessions, and my neighbors have told me things that I wish I didn't know.”

“These days, many people are unwilling to see their dog as an animal. Let's face it: they are cute, but they will bite. Not only do I look at dogs as animals, I look at myself as an animal, which explains why, since I got my permit, I drive with my head out the window.”

“Younger audiences are into me because I did 'Stuart Little,' and that movie was a very big deal for kids. And in 'Angels in the Outfield,' a generation of kids learned about magic and angels. And then, of course, there are these two blond girls named Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and I played their nanny on their TV show.”

“I love the idea that movies, like 'Fast Times,' can be iconic and change people's lives in little, tiny ways.”

“My creativity all comes from the same place. I wear one very comfortable, large hat.”

“Latin people love to dance. Nothing is more powerful than a Latin man doing 'Mambo Number 5' by himself.”

“I'm savoring being in California every minute, learning that traffic is just God's way of saying 'Hi.'”

“I do think Jesus would skip church on Sunday morning and instead visit the nursing homes and retirement homes where so many have abandoned their loved ones.”

“I remember when the palm trees were short and Tomorrowland was modern.”

“I think people are obsessed with their pets because pets don't speak. It's that simple. After you hang up the phone, you never hear a dog say, 'You're a liar, and you are making the same self-sabotaging mistakes that have kept you single for far too long.'”

“For a long time, I lived in West Hollywood and watched young gay men strolling through life having no idea what came before. They didn't know about the riots at Stonewall, the vice squad, the raids.”

“I have a nice little movie career, and I write plays and do my act.”

“We buy the tabloids to witness someone else's life go wrong, so we can feel a bit better about our own troubles.”

“In Beverly Hills, around 3 P.M. on Bedford Drive, a strange rite occurs. All the men and women who have had facial surgery leave the their surgeons and walk up and down the street bandaged like mummies in Prada, waiting for their loved ones to pick them up.”

“Our family business was operating batting cages. The pitching machine spit out the balls at lightning speed. Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax. Whitey Ford. 50 cents for 12 pitches. Of course, my mother ran the place, and I was her slave: selling candy, hosing down the street, and the most dreaded of all jobs, feeding the pitching machine with balls.”