“My father owned a music store when I was growing up in Rock Falls, Illinois. He could play all the instruments, which you had to do when you owned a music store back then. One day, when I was three years old, he took me to a parade. When the drums passed by, I got so excited I told him wanted to learn to play them.” YearsPlayWantedFallThreeFatherGrowing UpGrowingRocksOne DayInstrumentsExcitedStoresThree YearsParadesIllinoisThree Year Olds Author:Louie Bellson
“Growing up in Mississippi, I was such a farmer, and it's not desirable to bring attention to yourself. That's my nature, and all of a sudden, I'm in show business.” AttentionGrowing UpFarmersShow Business Author:Mac McAnally
“I'm very fortunate to have parents who have kept me grounded, so I hopefully won't end up in a bad situation when I grow up.” EndsGrowsParentSituationGrowing UpHopefullyFortunateGroundedBad Situations Author:Raven-Symone
“Well, growing up in LA, things are kind of thrust in front of you. You're almost forced to grow up pretty fast, with experiences and stuff. Going to that school there were a lot of rich girls, a lot of partying, a lot of wild things. You're put in this environment where you're forced to wear a uniform. It was all girls, so you rebel naturally, I think. I don't know, I just kind of got inspiration from every day living and going to school.” ThinkingKnowsWellsKindInspirationSchoolGirlGrowsStuffPartyGrowing UpRichEnvironmentGrowingFrontsRebelUniformsThrustWild ThingsRich Girl Author:Sarah Hudson
“People in London are so much more exposed to danger, or bad things. It took me quite a long time to grow up in that environment.” PeopleLongGrowsGrowing UpEnvironmentDangerLong TimeLondonBad ThingsExposedTime To Grow Up Author:Eliot Paulina Sumner
“The films that I loved growing up were the science fiction films from the late seventies and early eighties [films], which were more about the people and how they are affected by the environments that they are in. Whether they are sort of futuristic or alien of whatever they are; that was the science fiction that I loved. So that is what we tried to make, the sort of film that felt like those old films.” PeopleFilmFeltFictionGrowing UpEnvironmentGrowingLateScience FictionAliensAffectedSeventiesEightyFuturistic Author:Duncan Jones
“I've been a brand ambassador for Nigeria since I was age 11. Growing up in the U.K., I've had to defend Nigeria. and when I was 40, I finally woke up and decided to do something, and that's how the talk show came about.” ShowsAgeGrowing UpGrowingDecidedBrandsNigeriaAmbassadorsTalk Shows Author:Mo Abudu
“Sometimes it's frustrating if I'm out with the kids and have to deal with the paparazzi. That comes with it though. But it was fun becoming famous. I mean, I even wanted to one of the kids in FAME when I was growing up.” IfsMeanSometimesKidsWantedFunDealsGrowing UpGrowingBecomingFameFrustratingPaparazziBecoming Famous Author:Victoria Beckham
“I had been a kind of natural mystic my whole life, growing up there in Tennessee next to the river. Somehow, that was important for my consciousness. I still don't study [mysticism]. I just wait for experiences.” KindStillsImportantWholeNextWaitingNaturalConsciousnessGrowing UpStudyGrowingRiversWhole LifeMysticismMysticTennessee Author:Coleman Barks
“I want the marginality to come into the center. This is the thing I was conscious of growing up, when I later lived in England. I saw all these war movies that came out shortly after the war, and they were all about the war being fought by Englishmen or Americans, there were no other "allies" in it - from India or Australia, etc.” WantWarGrowing UpSawsGrowingConsciousIndiaEnglandEtcAustraliaAlliesEnglishmenWar Movie Author:Michael Ondaatje
“The toughest thing for me was growing up and being stared at and being looked at and being talked about in that particular way. Other than that it was a good childhood.” WayGrowing UpGrowingChildhoodParticularGood Childhood Author:Wilt Chamberlain
“There was a part, you know, obviously there was a part of the whole I military experience that you know like hooks right into the whole boyhood experience that that you know most American boys have growing up, you know, which is proving your manhood by proving how hard you are, by proving that you can take it.” KnowsHardWholeBoysGrowing UpGrowingMilitaryProveManhoodHookBoyhoodMilitary Experience Author:Peter P. Mahoney
“I love my job. It's such a privilege to be able to play such complicated characters. Growing up, I wanted to be a billion different things. I realized in order for that to happen, I don't have to be them all because the characters I want to play require such research and such a transformation to make that work - that's something that I love doing.” WantDifferentPlayCharacterHappensAbleWantedJobsOrderGrowing UpGrowingResearchTransformationPrivilegeComplicatedBillionsI RealizedDifferent Things Author:Ashley Bell
“Gospel music was the thing that inspired me as a child growing up on a cotton farm, where work was drudgery and it was so hard that when I was in the field I sang all the time. Usually gospel songs because they lifted me up above that black dirt.” ChildrenHardSongBlackGrowing UpGrowingFieldsInspiredFarmsDirtCottonDrudgeryChildren Growing UpGospel MusicGrowing ChildrenGospel Songs Author:Johnny Cash
“I've been in radio, God, twenty years. I started as a stand-up comedian. I wanted to be Carol Burnett when I was growing up. Radio was just kind of an accident. I did morning radio in my hometown of Buffalo, then went to Rochester, then Chicago, and then New York.” YearsKindWantedMorningGrowing UpGrowingNew YorkTwentiesRadioAccidentsComedianChicagoHometownCarolsBuffaloStand Up ComedianRochester Author:Stephanie Miller
“When I was growing up, hip-hop music existed as American thing. If you listened to it you were listening to an American subculture, whereas now you're just listening to pop music that everyone shares. I think that's big.” IfsThinkingBigsGrowing UpGrowingShareListeningHip HopPopsHipsHopsPop MusicJust ListenSubcultureHip Hop Music Author:Jonas Carpignano
“The idea of using media for expressing yourself artistically is kind of something I learned from my mother and my father. So for me, I think growing up wanting to be an artist, I always imagined myself sort of crossing over or mixing media and so it was a natural evolution for me to try to express in a filmic way or in a visual way. It just kind of seems like a natural sort of progression for me in terms of what I'm trying to do as an artist.” ThinkingWayTryingKindIdeasSeemsMotherArtistFatherTermNaturalGrowing UpGrowingMediaEvolutionVisualsProgressionExpress YourselfCrossingsMixingUsing MeCrossing Over Author:Sean Lennon
“Growing up in a business-orientated family meant that I naturally learnt the tricks of the trade.” Growing UpGrowingTradeTricks Author:Anne Robinson
“When I'm asked what my girls will think when they grow up, I'll tell them that they have to keep their clothes on till they're 40. But when they're 40, they can make their own decisions.” ThinkingGirlGrowsDecisionGrowing UpClothesMy Girl Author:Cindy Margolis
“Suddenly, Westerns, which were our action films and what the working man went to see to blow off steam and have a good time, became boring to most people growing up from the Eighties on, because they're kind of pastoral.” PeopleMenKindActionFilmGrowing UpGrowingBlowBoringGood TimesOur ActionsEightyHaving A Good TimeSteamWorking ManAction Films Author:Quentin Tarantino
“Growing up in Oklahoma, there wasn't much to do. Play sports, do a lot of drugs, or read and watch movies, which is what I did.” PlaySportsWatchesGrowing UpGrowingDrugOklahomaWatch Movie Author:Bill Hader
“I wanted to focus on songs that I was inspired by growing up. I love so many of them from the last 100 years, but I really wanted, for my first step forward, to choose material that has inspired me and got me into the world of musical theater.” WorldYearsFirstsWantedLastsSongStepsGrowing UpFocusGrowingMaterialsTheaterInspiredMusicalFirst StepsSteps ForwardMusical Theater Author:Josh Groban
“My parents sent me to a school across town, an integrated school, where I had the chance to meet and grow up with people who were from other parts of the world. ... I remember feeling that I would never have anything to contribute on St. Patrick's Day. I couldn't tell the stories that they might have been telling about their forebears and I felt left out.” PeopleWorldHas BeensStoriesFeelingsMightSchoolRememberLeftGrowsFeltParentChanceGrowing UpTownsMight Have BeenIntegratedLeft OutSt PatrickSt Patrick's Day Author:Isabel Wilkerson
“I was sensitive to music and poetry, and it was around me growing up.” Growing UpGrowingSensitive Author:Rosanne Cash
“Growing up in rural Louisiana, the ecosystem around our home wove harmoniously into our family and into our daily life. Every life lesson that trickled its way into my being came from a mutually respectful relationship between the environment and my family.” WayHomeGrowing UpEnvironmentGrowingLessonsMy FamilyOur FamilyDaily LifeLife LessonRespectfulEcosystemsLouisianaRespectful Relationships Author:Ian Somerhalder
“I guess...on one hand, I spent way too much time watching science fiction and reading science fiction when I was growing up. But a part of it is I also never felt much of a connection to the world in which I lived while I was growing up, and so, oddly enough, I think I felt a lot more connected to the worlds that I read about in science fiction.” ThinkingWorldWayEnoughHandsReadingFeltFictionGrowing UpToo MuchGrowingConnectionsScience FictionConnected Author:Moby
“I think that growing up very poor in a very wealthy town gave me a sense of being an outsider, and I hated it when I was growing up.” ThinkingPoorGrowing UpGrowingTownsHatedWealthyOutsiders Author:Moby
“When I was growing up, all I wanted to do was fit in, but if you're perpetually an outsider, it gives you a perspective that might have a little more objectivity than people who really feel connected to their social environment in which they grow up.” PeopleIfsGivingFeelsLittlesMightWantedSocialGrowsGrowing UpEnvironmentGrowingPerspectiveFitConnectedOutsidersObjectivitySocial Environment Author:Moby
“I never got the idea of a punishing God, just a really boring one. To see people growing up in the Carolinas who were Baptist, I knew there were others who felt God was going to send them to hell for any little thing, but not me.” PeopleLittlesIdeasFeltHellGrowing UpGrowingBoringLittle ThingsBaptistsCarolina Author:David Sedaris
“We think we have to prove our allegiance to God by being poor. Many years ago, my own psychic development teacher taught me that to be on a spiritual path meant that you needed to be poor, because that was proving your allegiance to God. So growing up with that kind of teaching from her was a real struggle for me, also.” ThinkingYearsKindRealSpiritualMy OwnPoorStruggleGrowing UpPathTeacherGrowingTeachingTaughtDevelopmentNeededProveYears AgoPsychicsAllegianceSpiritual Path Author:Echo Bodine
“Most 20th century academic physicists, and academia as a whole, simply did not want to touch the subject of consciousness. We have seen psychology grow up, and we've seen the development of neurophysiology and other much more sophisticated science, but only in the recent years have the tools of quantum mechanics been applied to anything representing human scale size.” WantYearsHumansWholeGrowsConsciousnessGrowing UpPsychologySubjectsCenturyDevelopmentToolsSizeScalesAcademicQuantumSophisticated20th CenturyMechanicPhysicistRepresentingQuantum MechanicsAcademia Author:Edgar Mitchell
“I'd always been a fan growing up, and in high school, I was really into Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen.” SchoolGrowing UpGrowingFansHigh SchoolTomsPettySpringsteen Author:Bryan Hayes
“Coming from Haiti and growing up in Brooklyn, there's a lot of European influence when I get dressed up. I wear a lot of fitted suits, elegant cuts; I think it's cool to mash up a lot of different looks.” ThinkingLooksDifferentGrowing UpCuttingGrowingInfluenceSuitsElegantBrooklynDressed UpHaitiDifferent LooksMash Up Author:Wyclef Jean
“I'm from a middle class family. I didn't grow-up rich, but I didn't grow-up poor. Each guy has to stick to his own story.” StoriesGuyGrowsPoorClassGrowing UpRichMiddleSticksMiddle ClassMiddle Class Family Author:SonReal
“I think a lot of people have an idealistic view - if you grow up in the country, there can't possibly be anything wrong with you.” PeopleIfsThinkingCountryGrowsViewsGrowing UpIdealistic Author:PJ Harvey
“I want to be a positive influence in little girls' eyes. Little girls need to be confident and grow up with a healthy state of mind. It's a tough, tough world out there.” WorldWantNeedsMindLittlesStatesEyeGirlGrowsGrowing UpInfluenceHealthyToughState Of MindBe ConfidentPositive InfluenceTough World Author:Christy Carlson Romano
“I think I learned the most from Eminem because I spent the most time with him in the studio. Going to L.A. with Dre was a learning experience, just seeing how the dude works and being up-close and personal with a dude whose music I appreciated growing up.” ThinkingGrowing UpGrowingSeeingStudiosAppreciatedLearning Experience Author:Obie Trice
“I hope my music inspires people and I want to be a good role model for everybody, not just the girls but for the guys too. I want to show everybody that I didn't grow up in the spotlight like the Mickey Mouse Club to make it. That is important for kids to know.” PeopleKnowsWantImportantShowsKidsGuyGirlGrowsRolesGrowing UpInspireModelsClubsRole ModelsMiceSpotlightMickeyGood Role Models Author:Tonya Mitchell
“My teacher asked me what I want to be when I grow up, I said happy. She told me I don't understand the assignment, I told her she doesn't understand life.” WantSaidGrowsGrowing UpTeacherAssignments Author:John Lennon
“My kids are Irish; I want them to grow up playing Gaelic football and learning Irish.” WantKidsGrowsGrowing UpFootballGaelic Author:Shane Filan
“Tolerance of dissent is the hallmark of a mature party, and it is well past time for the Republican Party to grow up.” WellsPastGrowsPartyGrowing UpRepublicanToleranceMatureRepublican PartyDissentHallmark Author:John McCain
“I played sports growing up in high school.” SchoolSportsGrowing UpGrowingHigh School Author:Erin Heatherton
“I think age is terribly overrated. You're okay as long as you don't grow up. By all means grow old, but don't mature. Remain childlike, retain wonder, the ability to be flabbergasted by something.” ThinkingMeanLongAgeGrowsAbilityWonderGrowing UpOkayMatureOverratedChildlike Author:Billy Connolly
“Watching children grow up, you learn a lot about life and about being a better person - you learn a lot about what's really important in the world and what isn't.” WorldChildrenPersonsImportantGrowsGrowing UpBetter PersonBeing A Better Person Author:Sharon Stone
“When I was young, all I wanted to be was a movie star. At a certain point, I started to grow up and really care about what I did.” CareWantedYoungCertainStarsGrowsGrowing UpMovie Star Author:Sharon Stone
“Growing up there are always those kids who are only happy when they are making someone else upset. That is unfortunately just how some people are. And their parents were fine. Some people are just born with bad wiring.” PeopleKidsParentBornGrowing UpGrowingFineUpsetWiring Author:Patton Oswalt
“Growing up in New York, I was sort of shocked when I realized that my children are Californians. They are 14 years old, and I explain to them frequently that they will never realize the glory of a snow day. You wake up and the world says, 'Oops, it's too much fun to go to school, you've got to stay home and deal with the snow!'” WorldYearsChildrenHomeSchoolFunRealizingDealsGrowing UpToo MuchGrowingNew YorkGloryWake UpI RealizedSnowMy ChildrenShockedCaliforniansToo Much FunSnow Day Author:Adam Savage
“Safety was not a big thing when I was growing up. A seat belt was something that got in the way: 'Ma, the seat belt is digging into my back.' 'Stuff it down into the seat. And roll those windows up, you're letting the smoke out'” WayBigsStuffGrowing UpGrowingWindowSafetySmokeSeatsBig ThingsBeltsDiggingSeat Belts Author:Margaret Smith
“Arizona may be the only state in America where mothers don't tell their children that someday, they can grow up and be president of the United States.” MayChildrenStatesAmericaMotherGrowsPresidentGrowing UpSomedayArizona Author:John McCain
“We didn't grow up with the sense that where we were was where we were gonna be. We grew up with the sense that where we were almost didn't matter, because we will be becoming something greater.” MatterGrowsGrowing UpGreaterGrewBecomingGrew UpBecoming Something Author:Will Smith