This is going to sound ridiculous, but I remember watching 'Boyz n the Hood,' and there is a scene where Cuba Gooding, Jr. gets pressed against a car by a police officer, and he starts crying because it's so humiliating. I remember thinking in that moment that I could totally identify with him, and I'm a little white kid from Canada.
I was the overweight kid who didn't have a boyfriend. I listened to other people say, 'You're ugly, you're fat, you're stupid,' and I believed it.
I was just a kid and I didn't have a dad. That's hard, because when you're a kid, you blame yourself for everything. And I blamed myself for him not being around, for my parents not being together.
'The Dick Van Dyke Show' was a huge influence on me as a kid. It looked like a really fun job.
The first Maiden record I ever got was 'Piece of Mind,' and I only got it because I thought the artwork was cool, and everyone talked about Iron Maiden. But they weren't necessarily the most popular metal band in America for a 12-year-old kid when I discovered them.
A huge part of what a kid learns when they're growing up is social and emotional development. As adults, we take it for granted that other people have emotions that are different from ours, and we can identify what they are, but those are skills that children have to learn.
I lied a lot when I was a kid. Somehow, I still do this today, but maybe in another way - not quite as ridiculously clumsily as I used to. But still, I think making music has a lot to do with it. One invents something that one can't possibly be. With songs, one invents a world that wouldn't exist otherwise.
Everybody I knew, practically, was a journalist when I was a kid - my father, all of his friends. I never wanted to be like those people.
I wasn't good in school. I didn't do sports. I sat in the bedroom and listened to records. Because the Beatles did whatever they wanted to, I took that as a kid and said, 'That's what rock is.'
When I was a little kid, before I learned how to write, I would tell stories.
I was a really bad kid. Then, I got sweet as I got older.
I'm coaching 'swing at this, don't swing at that,' and in the middle of it, a kid looks at me and says, 'Coach, I think I'm going to fail history.' Or maybe their girlfriend just dumped them. These are kids, and once I embraced that, this became a lot more fun.
'Catcher in the Rye' changed my life when I was a kid. I read it as I was a boy turning into a man, and I was so fascinated by the values. I believe in it.
Ever since I was a kid, whatever situation I was presented with, I always made the most of it.
I remember being fascinated by ants and wasps and other bugs when I was a kid. I'd set out a Coke can and stand back 20 feet and use my telescope to watch wasps land on it.
I was influenced by a lot of stand-up comedians... Eddie Murphy back when he was doing 'Raw.' I watched that so many times as a kid, I can probably still quote the entire thing to this day. Chris Rock. Dave Chappelle. George Carlin. A lot of the guys who were sort of edgy for their time.
I was just a punk-rock kid who never played acoustic guitar.
I was a kid who would try anything, and I said, 'Sure, I'll try theater - sounds like fun.'
Swinging a gold club is sort of a throwing action, and even as a kid, I could throw things far and fast.
One of the important things to look at is kids who aren't cheerleaders or aren't the student-body presidents. In 'Daddy Day Care,' one of the kids would only communicate in Klingon. I get that kind of a kid.
I was a difficult kid and a somewhat indifferent student but realized somehow that a new start at a good place, and far from home, was important.
I first read 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe' when I was a kid. And I think it was read to me. Me and my sister both had a copy and loved the books.
I was a strange kid. I'm still strange. People didn't get me. And I didn't expect them to.
I was a little bit of a tech lord. Not a lord. More of a duke or a nobleman. I was into that stuff as a kid. Nothing too crazy.
I enjoyed doing Lipstick, but it scared me. I was very nervous. I couldn't wait for it to be over. It was very real, and I was just a kid.
My mom says that when I was a little kid, I always used to say I wanted to be an actor, but I don't remember that.
I'm a '90s kid, so I loved 'NSync and the Spice Girls.
If you make a mistake, people are going to know about it really fast - and I was making a ton of them when I was a kid.
However democratic and egalitarian we kid ourselves into thinking society might be, I think that sense of entitlement operates as basically and viciously as it always did.
I had been building electronic musical instruments since I was a kid.
I turned 40, got married, got a kid, and my mother passed away. I experienced life and death, with the enjoyment of creating life and the loss, within one year.
When I was a kid, I was into hardcore music. The scene in New York was tiny. Every person hanging out was in a band and played at the A7 Club. There was not much rehearsing or anything. Just doing.
I was just a kid in 1987 when I heard of the Pixies, the year after I graduated high school. But I had my band together, and my best friend at the time, Corey Hickock, who was the guitar player in the band that would become STP, Mighty Joe Young, turned me on to the Pixies.
When I was a kid and I'd be in trouble. I'd ask God to help me, and then once the fire was out, I wouldn't talk to Him anymore. When I got older, I began to find I needed some help spiritually, just to function.
I'm sort of like the kid that kicks around in Vans, beat-up Converse, ripped jeans, and t-shirts.
I was just a kid in love with hip hop music. I love music. I love the culture. I wanted to be a part of it in any way.
