I guess because I had such a horrible life growing up, going from place to place not knowing what I was gonna do and ending up being homeless, there was a lot of pain and a lot of anger that was coming out through my guitar playing.
If we can inspire a kid to pick up a guitar - and less and less kids are doing so these days - it'd be really cool because I know how it felt growing up and how special that was for me.
I was lucky enough to know exactly what I wanted to do when I was growing up. I think one of the hardest things to figure out in life is what your calling is, and what truly makes you happy - not what you want to work at, but what you want to do.
When I was growing up, in L.A., I went to these schools, Fairfax High School, Bancroft Junior High School, and they had great music departments. I always played in the orchestra, the jazz band, the marching band.
When they're growing up, if you tell kids God exists, they believe it. It's the same with the techno-cultural society. They believe in it - that it's the road to paradise, that there are no limits.
I blame and credit my brothers for my competitive fire within me. Growing up, I lost at everything! My brothers are quite a bit older - 10 years and 5 years - so it was a challenge, but I have some of the most amazing memories with my big brothers.
I knew from the time I was a young girl that I was destined to be a writer. I'm incredibly stubborn. The more someone tells me I can't do something, the harder I work to prove them wrong. My father's nickname for me when I was growing up was 'Hardhead.'
I had an addiction to sugar growing up - major, major, major.
I learned very early that you don't get time back. I'd miss my children growing up, so that's the reason I retired.
Growing up, my mom was very strict about how I dressed and how I behaved, and I said to myself that I wasn't going to be like that. But now I know I'm going to be exactly like my mom. I'm going to be worse!
Growing up, I was always in the kitchen. Even in third grade, I made cooking videos called 'The Little Italian.' Very little production value, but it was good.
Looking back, video game design seems a natural fit, although there was no such thing when I was growing up. I built a Tic-Tac-Toe playing machine in my teens which went up in smoke on the night it was scheduled to go to a science fair.
I had to learn to sew when I was growing up, because nothing else fitted me.
When I was growing up, I'd be in the choir. My mum was the organist in the church, so I'd sing in the church.
I hated Sundays when I was growing up in Streatham, south London. Everything closed down and stopped.
Growing up, dad coached my footy and cricket teams, but that's all he could do for me.
Growing up I felt like my nose was big. I was always like, 'I'm going to get a nose job one day'. I'm glad I didn't.
Some of the worst things that have happened in my career, like things getting leaked, have actually been what's best for me, because people knew when I was on that show that I was really growing up.
I remember growing up, having sports to go to, having recess, those were the things I looked forward to. Yes, I'm an athlete, but I had buddies who weren't, and they looked forward to it, too.
Growing up in Chicago, there was a very particular type of home that would display the black Jesus figure. It wasn't a radical home. You wouldn't find these in a Black Panther house. There's still a strong allegiance to Christianity.
I've always been kind of an introvert growing up.
When I was growing up in the 1960s, there was starting to be more books geared towards young adults.
I would like to have seen my sons growing up.
If you are a Rothschild, a Rosenwald, a Gimbel, or even a Waldbaum, growing up Jewish can be a rich experience. For the rest of us, it could be just so-so.
I used to have this fantasy when I was growing up where Princess Leia would be in the slave Leia costume and she would be in a vat of Breyer's ice cream. A recurring dream where I would eat my way to her.
I was this weird misfit guy from suburban Seattle, I never really fit in, and then I became a drama geek, among all the other different kinds of geek that I was growing up, and I found I was pretty good at it.
As I learned from growing up, you don't mess with your grandmother.
After working for 14 years on Wall Street and growing up in a family with strong roots in small business, I know how important the entrepreneurial spirit is to attaining the American dream.
When I was growing up, I wanted to do Letterman and I loved that live, in-studio model. I still would do something like that.
Sometimes we're so concerned about giving our children what we never had growing up, we neglect to give them what we did have growing up.
I've been a Lakers fan since growing up in Oklahoma. My hometown's finally got the Thunder, which is really exciting, but I've still got to stick with the Lakers.
I've never thought about songwriting as a weapon. I've only thought about it as a way to help me get through love and loss and sadness and loneliness and growing up.
Growing up, there wasn't much emphasis on being nice or naughty. As a family, there wasn't much discipline. It was more relaxed at home, which I'm grateful for.
Growing up, I was a very shy kid but I felt that being on stage or playing another character would somehow open me up. And I think it did.
I'm really open-minded, musically. The credo I ascribe to is, 'Take care of the music, and let the rest take care of itself.' Growing up, I was a sponge and soaked up everything I was exposed to.
Growing up, I thought I was white. It didn't occur to me I was Asian-American until I was studying abroad in Denmark and there was a little bit of prejudice.
