The most important role models should and could be parents and teachers. But that said, once you're a teenager you've probably gotten as much of an example from your parents as you're going to.
I grew up where my parents would literally shove me in the car rather than have to say hello to a neighbor.
Parents sometimes make not those allowances for youth, which, when young, they wished to be made for themselves.
My parents were concerned that I would not get good schooling, so they put me up in my uncle's house in Dharwad, and I spent about six years there. So at a very young age, I was away from my parents. I developed an amount of independence and learned to stand on my own feet.
I saw my parents as gods whose every wish must be obeyed or I would suffer the penalty of anguish and guilt.
I feel like my grandparents and parents gave me a tremendous amount. And if I can pass some of that on, then I'll be very happy.
Indecision and delays are the parents of failure.
Speaking as the child of divorce, I have to say that one of the most disconcerting findings in 'The Longevity Project' focused on divorce: On average, grown children of divorced parents died almost five years earlier than children from intact families.
As you get older, you realise your parents aren't these superheroes. They're actually people.
My parents were young and liberal and knew I was going to drink anyway, so they let me do it at home.
I get so annoyed at people not looking after their parents. The deal is when we are growing up they look after us and as they grow older we look after them. That's the deal.
I never experienced any feelings of closeness and caring from my parents.
I know theater can improve the quality of people's lives, and I know theater can heal. I've worked as a doctor clown in a hospital for two years. I have seen sick kids and sad parents and doctors be lifted and transported in moments of pure joy. I know theater unites us.
My parents taught me service - not by saying, but by doing. That was my culture, the culture of my family.
Where was the closure for Michael Brown's parents?
Kids need to open up to their parents. And parents should realize that when kids are pushing you away, that's the time to really step in.
I think in any relationship, even in the healthiest of relationships, we are all parents to each other at times. I think that's a normal, healthy sort of relationship. I think there are times when we're each a mother and a father when we need to be.
I don't know what your childhood was like, but we didn't have much money. We'd go to a movie on a Saturday night, then on Wednesday night my parents would walk us over to the library. It was such a big deal, to go in and get my own book.
'The Simpsons' was about children and married parents; 'Futurama' is about people in between; they're growing up and haven't settled down. Every other cartoon show seemed to be, you know, dumb dad, bratty kids.
My parents aren't really conformists.
I was very lucky in that my parents were very broad-minded. Because they had come from another country and hadn't been able to fulfill their dreams, they wanted me to be more of myself, if you know what I mean.
When I was younger, I was very scared to talk to people. To the point where my parents took me to a therapist because they thought something was wrong with me.
My parents always say I have really good legs. I've worked really hard for them. They always insist that I show my legs.
Does anyone ask their parents how they are conceived?
Parents, you know, can be terrible.
My parents were of the generation that lived through the Second World War, but I grew up listening to my mother recounting her dad's tales about his terrible experiences during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 and later on the Western Front.
When my parents were like, 'We're going to the Northwest,' I thought, 'You've gotta be kidding me.' I was so depressed. The cold weather really did not agree with me. When I moved back down to L.A. at 16, I felt like it was home - it was where I belonged.
I was raised on technology. I grew up in Livermore, California, a town of physicists and cowboys. My parents worked at the government laboratories there. So technology was very normal for me.
I was almost tragically shy, like, clinically. I should've been admitted somewhere. I think my parents knew, but maybe they didn't think much about it. It's hard walking the Earth shy. You miss out on a lot.
I'm very proud of my Nigerian heritage. I wasn't fortunate enough to be raised in a heavy Nigerian environment, because my parents were always working. My father was with D.C. Cabs and my mother worked in fast food and was a nurse.
There are certain things that we take for granted that simply would not have existed without the great migration. Motown, for example, would not have existed - it simply would not, because Berry Gordy, the founder of it, his parents had migrated from Georgia to Detroit where he founded Motown, and where did he get his talent?
My parents never referenced Ethiopia that much, largely because of the circumstances under which we left. We left during a time of political upheaval, and there was a lot of loss that came with that, so my parents were reluctant to talk about those things. So I had, by and large, an American childhood.
No child should be raised in a system. A system isn't a parent. Even the system knows this, which is why the Children and Family Services Division puts so much effort into finding permanent homes for the kids who are never going to be reunited with their birth parents.
I auditioned in Chicago for Juilliard and didn't get in. I was basically living in a back room of my parents' house, paying rent and not doing anything with my life. I'd like to say it was patriotic to join the Marines, but it was also that I was doing nothing honorable with my life and spending too much time at McDonald's.
I was raised by very traditional Southern parents with Southern manners. You don't air your dirty laundry to people that aren't your family or your friends. Why would I ever want to portray myself as anything other than together?
By the time I had reached the age of 16, in the 10th grade, my parents, after 22 years of marriage, one day decided to get a divorce.
