“Fills the heart with its unforgettable characters and small-town charm. A feel-good read as welcome as a favorite friend!” FeelsHeartCharacterTownsFeel GoodWelcomeCharmSmall TownUnforgettableGood Reads Author:Christie Ridgway
“They say people from small towns have big dreams and that pretty much describes me. I had big dreams growing up and I'm still a dreamer.” PeopleStillsDreamBigsGrowing UpGrowingTownsDreamerSmall TownDescribe Me Author:Clay Guida
“I went back to a small town in Poland where my dad grew up. It was a very traumatic experience for me as a young man to know that my father's family were killed by Nazis, killed by Hitler. And that left, you know, if not intellectually, at least an emotional part of me which said, God, we have got to do everything we can to end this kind of horrific racism or anti-Semitism. And I have spent much of my life trying to fight that.” IfsKnowsMenTryingKindSaidEndsYoungFightingFatherLeftEmotionalGrewDadGrew UpRacismTownsMy DadYoung ManNaziSmall TownPolandAnti SemitismHorrificTraumatic Experiences Author:Bernie Sanders
“For any American who had the great and priceless privilege of being raised in a small town there always remains with him nostalgic memories... And the older he grows the more he senses what he owed to the simple honesty and neighborliness, the integrity that he saw all around him in those days.” GrowsMemoriesSimpleSawsHonestyIntegrityTownsRemainsRaisedPrivilegeSensesSmall TownPricelessNostalgic Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
“'One Tree Hill' really had an impact on my life. It was the first time I left my house and my family in New York and went to a small town in North Carolina. It was the most incredible experience for me.” FirstsHouseLeftTreeNew YorkFirst TimeMy FamilyTownsImpactIncrediblesHillsSmall TownCarolinaNorth CarolinaTree Hill Author:Daniella Alonso
“People always - I think were surprised about me connecting with folks in small town Iowa. And the reason I did was - first of all, I had the benefit that at the time nobody expected me to win. And so I wasn't viewed through this prism of Fox News and conservative media making me scary. At the time, I didn't think seem scary, other than just having a funny name. I seemed young.” PeopleThinkingFirstsReasonSeemsYoungWinningNamesMediaBenefitsNewsTownsFolksConservativeScaryExpectedFoxesSmall TownConnectingIowaFox NewsPrismsFunny Name Author:Barack Obama
“I did stories about unexpected encounters, back roads, small towns and ordinary folk, sometimes doing something a little extraordinary.” LittlesSometimesStoriesOrdinaryTownsExtraordinaryFolksEncountersUnexpectedSmall TownBack Roads Author:Charles Kuralt
“When I look back, I'm glad I grew up in a small town. There, it's just you, your family and whatever you make of it.” LooksGrewGrew UpTownsGladOur FamilySmall Town Author:Champ Bailey
“I'm a small-town guy, and moving to a huge city might be an adjustment.” MightMovingGuyCitiesHugeTownsSmall TownAdjustment Author:Adam Dunn
“John Adams was a farmer, Abraham Lincoln a small town lawyer. Plato and Socrates were teachers. Jesus was a carpenter. To equate wisdom and judgement with occupation is at best insulting.” JesusTeacherTownsLawyerJudgementOccupationFarmersPlatoSmall TownInsultingAbrahamCarpenterPlato And Socrates Author:Mark Sheppard
“I'm honestly so incredibly grateful for every opportunity I get in film industry. Don't forget! I was born in a tiny little country in a small town and here I am working in Canada and America and it's incredible.” LittlesCountryAmericaFilmOpportunityBornForgetIndustryTownsGratefulIncrediblesTinyHonestlyCanadaSmall TownHere I AmFilm Industry Author:Famke Janssen
“You can't be an actor in a small town-you have to go to New York or L.A.” ActorsNew YorkTownsSmall Town Author:Jack White
“When you're touring and if you go to a party, there's automatically a celebrity-audience distance. It follows you around, especially when you're on the road in small towns. Any time there is awe, it gets very difficult to be normal, to be yourself. But I'm not saying that that's what made me the way I am. I've probably always been distant.” IfsWayMadeDifficultPartyAudienceNormalTownsDistanceBeing YourselfAweSmall TownTouring Author:Steve Martin
“To begin at the beginning: It is a spring moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black.” NightBlackSpringTownsSmall Town Author:Dylan Thomas
“If I'd grown up in Atlanta and then gone to Ottumwa, Iowa it may have been culture shock, but I was used to being in a small town and used to seeing the same people all the time and going to the same grocery store every day, so it wasn't that big of a deal for me. I was just excited to be on TV. I was just jumping for joy when I got there. I wasn't making any money, but I was sure happy.” PeopleIfsMayHas BeensBigsUsedJoyCultureDealsGoneSeeingTvsTownsExcitedStoresShockSmall TownJumpingGroceriesGrocery StoresIowaAtlantaCulture Shock Author:Todd Grisham
“A lot of times in movies, you see the "small town" people, being bowled over by this creative entity or this corporate ideal, and it's not true, at all.” PeopleCreativeIdealsTownsCorporateEntitySmall Town Author:John Krasinski
“I got a little bit of a sense for the subculture, which is the equivalent of any subculture, really. The stakes are high, even if you live in a small town. It's like the annual bass fishing contests, or whatever it is. The stakes are always absurdly high, and this is no different. The competition at this butter carving things, from what I understand, is not that far off from what we're depicting in the movie.” IfsLittlesDifferentBitsLittle BitTownsCompetitionFishingStakesContestsSmall TownBassAnnualsCarvingSubculture Author:Ty Burrell
“When I was a kid, I felt like I could do anything and play anything. I just felt super-confident. And then, once I started to play music professionally, maybe it's from being from a small town, but you grow up and then you're suddenly a big fish in a small pond, and I realized that there were a billion other drummers out there that could play as good as you or better, and everybody wants that job.” WantPlayBigsKidsJobsGrowsFeltGrowing UpTownsFishesBillionsI RealizedSmall TownDrummerPondsBig Fish Author:Patty Schemel
“...I suddenly realized what small towns are. They are places where you grow up with the peculiar-you live next door to the strange and the unlikely for so long that everything and everyone become commonplace.” LongNextGrowsGrowing UpDoorsStrangeTownsPeculiarSmall TownUnlikelyCommonplace Author:John Irving
“My father was a golden boy from a very small town. He won a very prestigious law scholarship to NYU Law School, and there in Greenwich Village, he met my mother, who was very young, fresh off the boat from Germany.” SchoolLawYoungMotherFatherBoysMetsTownsGoldenBoatGermanyVillageSmall TownScholarshipLaw SchoolPrestigiousNyuGreenwichGreenwich VillageGolden Boy Author:Blake Bailey
“Childhood was fairly solitary. I grew up in a very small town called Navan in County Meath. I never knew my father. He left when I was an infant and I was left in the care of my mother and my grandparents.” CareMotherFatherLeftChildhoodGrewGrew UpTownsSolitaryGrandparentSmall TownInfantCounty Author:Pierce Brosnan
“I am completely and utterly hooked to all the great shows on A&E and Court TV that are about small town murder. These shows like Forensic Files, City Confidential, I just can't get enough of them. It's always the same sort of deal. You know that they interview the actual people that lived through the experience. I miss Paul Winfield as the host of City Confidential, may he rest in peace.” PeopleKnowsMayEnoughShowsDealsCitiesMissingTvsMurderTownsCourtInterviewsHostSmall TownFilesHookedRest In PeaceConfidentialForensics Author:Kevin Pollak
“I think I'm more grounded, you know, and I know what I want out of life and I'm, you know, my morals are really, you know, strong and I have major beliefs about certain things and I think that has helped me, you know, from being, you know, coming from a really small town.” ThinkingKnowsWantCertainBeliefStrongMoralMajorsTownsGroundedSmall Town Author:Britney Spears
“Grew up in a small town where there was only one crazy guy. He didn't even go insane doing anything good, like going to 'Nam or having an extended acid trip. Turns out - legend has it - he just had some bad cheese.” GuyTurnsCrazyGrewGrew UpTownsInsaneLegendsCheeseSmall TownAcidAcid Trip Author:Brian Posehn
“Well I grew up in Canada in a really small town. We didn't have running water for a long time and we didn't have TV. Then when we did get TV we only had one channel.” WellsLongRunningWaterTvsGrewGrew UpLong TimeTownsCanadaSmall TownRunning Water Author:Bonnie McFarlane
“[William] Eggleston's photographs look like they were taken by a Martian who lost the ticket for his flight home and ended up working at a gun shop in a small town near Memphis. On the weekend he searches for the ticket - it must be somewhere - with a haphazard thoroughness that confounds established methods of investigation.” LooksHomeLostTakenGunTownsMethodPhotographFlightShopsWeekendInvestigationTicketsSmall TownMartiansMemphisHaphazardThoroughness Author:Geoff Dyer
“My parents were real classic rock freaks, so I heard a lot of Zeppelin, Stones, Hendrix stuff. Thankfully, they were also into lots of old soul, too, so we listened to Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind & Fire and War. I was so isolated where I grew up (a small town in Pennsylvania) that there was literally no culture.” WarRealSoulEarthCultureStuffParentWonderFireHeardRocksWindGrewGrew UpStonesTownsClassicFreakIsolatedSmall TownPennsylvaniaHendrixZeppelinsOld SoulClassic Rock Author:Princess Superstar
“When you have a small town where all of a sudden there's 3,000 black people living in a neighborhood where there were never black people before, that's a dramatic change. I'm not sure how much the people in the north are acknowledging that this is a permanent phenomenon, that it is going to change the social fabric.” PeopleSocialBlackTownsPermanentDramaticNot SureNeighborhoodPhenomenonBlack PeopleFabricSmall TownDramatic Change Author:Jonas Carpignano
“I hope to give you at least 15 more years of movies. I`m not going to be this old guy that keeps cranking them out. My plan is to have a theater by that time in some small town and I will be the manager this crazy old movie guy.” GivingYearsGuyPlansCrazyTheaterTownsManagersSmall TownOld GuysOld Movie Author:Quentin Tarantino
“Bluffton is growing. But we must hold on to that small-town character.” CharacterGrowingTownsSmall Town Author:Laura Bush
“Iloved Ashley Hope Perez's heartbreaking Out of Darkness set in late the 1930s in a small town Texas. It should win all the YA awards.” ShouldWinningDarknessLateTownsAwardsTexasSmall TownHeartbreaking1930sAshley Author:Justine Larbalestier
“I think I would like to be in Victorian times. Small town. Bandstands. Summer. That kind of thing. Without disease.” ThinkingKindDiseaseSummerTownsSmall TownVictorianVictorian Times Author:Rod Serling
“The most dangerous thing I've ever encountered was a run-in with Boko Haram around 2007 in a small town in Nigeria. I got caught along with the photographer I was working with, the same one I worked with on the Afghanistan book, Seamus Murphy. We were caught in an attack by a mob after Friday prayers. And the level of violence was so extreme. It was more violent than any other mob violence I have ever seen.” BookRunningPrayerLevelsViolenceDangerousTownsPhotographerCaughtExtremesViolentAfghanistanSmall TownFridayNigeriaDangerous ThingsMurphyBoko HaramHaram Author:Eliza Griswold
“I both loved and hated South Pasadena. On the one hand, it was so diverse - all my closest friends were immigrants or had immigrant parents. On the other hand, it was a bit conservative - in a sort of wholesome, Midwestern, small-town sense. I never met a single writer until I moved to New York City for college.” HandsBitsParentCitiesNew YorkCollegeMetsTownsMovedSouthConservativeHatedImmigrantsNew York CityDiverseClosestSmall TownClosest FriendsImmigrant ParentsPasadena Author:Porochista Khakpour
“When I was sixteen, I began to think outside the box of my small town. Not that the people in my small town are in a box - they're not! There's a brilliant college there, and I had brilliant teachers from that college. But in terms of a conservative upbringing, which I did have within my own family, I just began to question things and to think for myself.” PeopleThinkingTermMy OwnTeacherCollegeTownsConservativeBoxesBrilliantSmall TownUpbringingSixteenOutside The BoxThink Outside The Box Author:Ronee Blakley
“It's in every single county. It's in our cities but it's also in our wealthier suburbs. It's in our small towns. There is no place in Ohio where you can hide from drug epidemic .” CitiesDrugTownsSmall TownCountySuburbsEpidemicsOhio Author:Mike DeWine
“Growing up in a small town, in the Midwest, and Catholic: Those are sort of three layers of repression.” ThreeGrowing UpGrowingTownsCatholicLayersSmall TownRepressionMidwestGrowing Up In A Small Town Author:Paul Rust
“I really love Durham more than any place I've ever been; some small towns can be really provincial and strangling, but Durham is the best city in the world.” WorldCitiesTownsSmall TownCities In The WorldStranglingDurham Author:John Darnielle
“I was into punk, but I didn't go whole-hog. A lot of kids who grew up in small towns that were into punk music went the "safe" way - not doing drugs, being straight edge.” WayWholeKidsGrewDrugSafeGrew UpTownsEdgesPunkSmall TownHogStraight EdgePunk Music Author:Daughn Gibson
“I grew up in Nazareth, Penn., which was an hour and a half from New York, and an hour and a half from Philly. So bands that were touring came through one way or another. We got to see stuff people in other small towns didn't, like Wesley Willis. I couldn't have asked for a better place to grow up and be into music.” PeopleWayGrowsStuffHoursHalfGrowing UpNew YorkGrewBandGrew UpTownsOne WayBetter PlaceSmall TownTouringNazareth Author:Daughn Gibson
“I think in all small towns, all kind of working class communities around the world. They are kind of similar.” ThinkingWorldKindCommunityClassTownsAll KindsAround The WorldWorking ClassSmall Town Author:Sacha Baron Cohen
“You can go to any small town in America, there's going to be a metal fan there. You can't say that about post-rock.” AmericaFansRocksTownsPostsMetalsSmall TownMetal Fans Author:David Pajo
“I enjoy small towns, I've got my friends there. I have friends in L.A. too, but I'm not much on traffic.” EnjoyMy FriendsTownsTrafficSmall Town Author:Jacob Lofland
“I'm just a small-town New Zealand girl. But, I do think it was incredibly necessary for me. Wild Things wouldn't exist if I hadn't have made some dramatic changes and that all happened in LA.” IfsThinkingMadeGirlHappenedTownsDramaticSmall TownNew ZealandWild ThingsDramatic Change Author:Ladyhawke
“I had a big family - two older sisters and a younger brother. My family was like moving around a lot so I lived in a lot of small towns. My father was very restless.” TwoBigsMovingFatherBrotherMy FamilyTownsSmall TownRestlessBig FamiliesOlder SisterYounger Brother Author:Jessica Lange
“I grew up a fat kid in a small town in Minnesota who was a tomboy and happened to play a mean violin. My goal was to be a famous concert artist some day.” MeanPlayKidsArtistGoalHappenedGrewGrew UpTownsFatsConcertsSmall TownViolinMinnesotaFat Kid Author:Gretchen Carlson
“In my class was an Annapolis graduate, several engineers, and most recent president of the University of Alabama.These were all small-town people who had good values. The families were tight. The schools reaffirmed the families and reaffirmed the church values that you were taught. I guess it was just one of those swell times to be a part of.” PeopleSchoolValuesPresidentChurchClassTaughtTownsUniversityJust OneGraduatesEngineersSmall TownAlabamaGood ValuesAnnapolis Author:Jeff Sessions
“The Eternal Kansas City song came from a dream sequence. It was actually kind of weird. I had this dream about a Kansas City type of thing while I was up at Stevie Winwood's place near Cheltenham, in Britain. I went into this small town and I was walking along and this dream thing was still in my head.” KindStillsDreamSongCitiesTypeWalkingEternalTownsBritainSmall TownSequenceKansasKansas City Author:Van Morrison
“This country is made up of small towns and big dreams.” MadeCountryDreamBigsTownsSmall Town Author:Brian Mulroney
“I once gave a workshop and I asked the women poets there, If you went back to that little town you've come from - these were from small towns - would you say, I'm a poet? And one of them said, If I said I was a poet in that town, they'd think I didn't wash my windows. And that stayed with me for so long, the sense of the collective responsibility of someone as against the individual thing it takes to be a poet.” IfsThinkingLittlesLongSaidIndividualResponsibilityPoetWindowTownsCollectivesSmall TownWorkshopsLittle TownsCollective Responsibility Author:Eavan Boland