Quotes About Growing Up

When I was a kid growing up, I used to watch ‘DuckTales.’

Growing up in New York, I loved watching my grandmother Estee put on her make-up – I always admired her sense of style.

I’ve always liked simple. Growing up, I wore corduroys and Lacoste shirts, Maraolo flats, and maybe one gold bracelet.

Growing up in Egypt, I never saw the country as divided as it is today. We now have two main political groupings: the Islamist parties and the civil, or liberal, political parties.

I’d seen ‘Interview with A Vampire’ and saw Dracula movies growing up, but I never thought, ‘I love vampires I have to do a show about vampires.’

I think, when you are growing up, you have to pull apart from what your mother wants or needs. You’ve got to go your own way, and that’s what I did.

I’ve grown up with kids watching me and as they’re growing up, I’m growing up.

I wanted to be a painter, really, when I was growing up as a kid. It was one thing that really took a grip on me.

Growing up on, say, the Upper East Side, you’re so isolated. If you go to the Hamptons every weekend, you never talk to a construction worker, and the construction worker would never talk to you.

Because we had no money when I was growing up, when I started dancing, I wasn’t allowed to be frivolous – my mum made me go to every lesson because she was paying for it.

Growing up I always knew I had a deviated septum on the right side of my nose, which caused trouble breathing. The older I got, the worse it got.

When I was growing up, I used to watch ‘Power Rangers’ and ‘Ninja Turtles.’ It seemed like every movie had someone doing martial arts in it, so I would go around punching and kicking trees.

I’m still a huge Yankees fan. Growing up, Jeter was my guy, but Bernie Williams was my favorite player.

I think there’s nothing wrong with being fixated on superheroes when you are 7 years old, but I think there’s a disease in not growing up.

When I think about growing up, I feel most affected by two travels that I made working in cargo boats when I was 16 and 18. One of them crossed through the Mississippi and Baton Rouge and Mobile, Alabama, and another went all the way to Europe.

At one point I learned transcendental meditation. This was 30-something years ago. It took me back to the way that I naturally was as a child growing up way in the country, rarely seeing people. I was in that state of oneness with creation and it was as if I didn’t exist except as a part of everything.

I had a lot of growing up to do. A lot of times, I learned the hard way.

I wasn’t cut out to be an opera singer, but it was a nice fantasy for a teenager growing up in Hungary during the Stalinist era.

When I was growing up, I wanted to adopt, because I was aware there were kids that didn’t have parents.

I kind of got my big break with ‘The Princess Diaries’ and during the press rounds for that everyone asked me: ‘Did you always want to be a princess growing up?’ And the truth was, no I wanted to be Catwoman.

For me, growing up in Harlem and then migrating down to SoHo and the Lower East Side and chillin’ down there and making that my stomping ground… That was a big thing, because I’m from Harlem, and downtown is more artsy and also more open-minded. So I got the best of both worlds.

When I was growing up, I said to my ex-girlfriend, ‘I will not be successful until everyone in Holland knows my name.’ And it worked.

Yeah, I’ve played a lot of instruments, and I played in a lot of bands growing up, and I’ve even had to play music in a lot of films that I’ve done.

I think growing up is difficult and it’s a process that I’m always interested in, with kids and adults, they are often on two different universes.

I’ve always hated the way Hollywood has portrayed accountants. They’re always little nerd balls, wimpy, afraid of everything. Growing up with accountants, I don’t see them that way.

I have an ambivalent feeling about the Israeli army. Growing up in Tel Aviv, being involved in the arts, the last thing artists want to do is fight.

I watched the ‘Seven Samurai’ a lot because I loved it growing up. I can’t describe to you how powerful that was. When you’re a kid, you can’t watch an almost-three-hour movie, but this was a war I just never saw before, with these samurai. I could relate to it, just being poor.

When I was younger, growing up in Pittsburgh, they had a ‘Golden Gloves’ program through the Boys and Girls Club. In Pittsburgh, New York, Philly, Washington, those areas, I would go and spar at competitions.

My parents were of the opinion, because they had started skating very young, that you should have something that you do that you care about, because it structures your life as you’re growing up.

As I was growing up, it was made clear that the fat me wasn’t welcome, that a thin person was expected and awaited, and impatiently so.

When I was growing up in the south Indian city of Madras, there were only two political parties that mattered one was run by a former matinee idol, and the other was run by his former screenwriter.

One of the things about being a boy, especially growing up without a father, is you really don’t have that role model to teach you how to do things.

When I was growing up, I cheered and danced and ran and stuff like that. I’m probably thinner now than I was in high school. I had a lot of muscle – a lot of muscle in high school.

When I was growing up, I never heard the word ‘racism.’ It was only in Paris I encountered that.

I love comedy, but I was just obsessed with ‘SNL’ growing up.

Growing up in the eighties, you could go from one style in a movie to another style, and that was okay. In the nineties, you had to obey your niche. You had to follow the code and never step outside of exactly what you’re doing.

Growing up in Waterloo, the Governor General’s Award wasn’t something I even thought to wish for.

I grew up on film sets but more around the process of making films. I saw a lot of the editing process and the writing process, which takes years. That really affected me growing up, that side of it.

I have to be careful, as I don’t want to offend Midlanders, but growing up, it wasn’t like growing up in London. Anything you were interested in, you’d be able to find someone also interested in it. In the Midlands, nobody came out as gay at my school at all.

When I was growing up in the 1960s, there was starting to be more books geared towards young adults.

Growing up, we had folk records.

On the one hand, I always get the young ingenue, pretty parts. But I don’t think of myself that way because I was an ugly duckling when I was growing up. I have to be reminded when I play a part sometimes that I’m playing the pretty girl.

Growing up in a rural setting in Minnesota, I was raised with the outdoors and a sense of adventure.

To me, the thing about anime is that it’s so adult-oriented. I remember going to Suncoast growing up, and you see ‘Akira’ there with the little ‘Not for Kids’ sticker on it. That always made an impact on me.

No matter where you are or where you grow up, you always go through the same awkward moments of being a teenager and growing up and trying to figure out who you are.

Growing up, I was sort of a tomboy. I was the one skating with the boys.

I was a ballerina for 10 years growing up, but I stopped.

Growing up, I was a big Red Sox fan and looked up to guys like Dustin Pedroia, who’s obviously not the biggest guy, but the way he competes, the way he works, it was motivating 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.

I was a big fan of Aaliyah’s. Growing up, my mom was a big fan of her music. When I grew to have my own taste in music, I really loved ‘One In A Million.’ That was my jam.

I enjoyed acting growing up I did musical theater. I had a secret desire to be a television and movie actress, but it wasn’t something I admitted to myself that I wanted to do, I guess.

When I was growing up, my mother always wore Chanel.

I have the power of my height. Growing up, it was a total drawback. There was nothing good about it at all.

I was always depressed growing up. There wasn’t a reason for it, I just was. I was sad and morose. I cried a lot, I wrote a lot, and I read a lot and that was how I dealt with it.

I’m not a highly outgoing person. I’m pretty guarded when you first meet me. But being in a Speedo for my entire life growing up, because I was a swimmer, and being naked in front of people now, doesn’t really bother me.

Growing up, I loved drama and fantasies. I hated the Marx Brothers. I took all that confusion seriously.

Growing up, I didn’t really know who the Tuskegee Airmen were.

I know, I’m like a kid. Maybe I was a bit too spoilt growing up. Everything just came like I wanted it to.

Growing up, I listened to a lot of jazz and blues records – John Coltrane and Etta James. I was also really into Radiohead and the BeeGees.

Growing up, I never listened to English music. I was more into Motown, as well as early rock n’ roll like Chuck Berry and Little Richard.

Growing up in eastern Germany, I knew of Superman, but he didn’t resonate emotionally with me.

I loved Disney. ‘Fantasia’ was my first, favorite Disney movie. And it just kept going. I loved ‘Bambi.’ I loved ‘Cinderella,’ ‘Lady and the Tramp’ and ‘Snow White’ and even ‘Mary Poppins’ which wasn’t even fully animated – it was just a little bit animated. They were such a part of my growing up years I was just very connected to them.

Growing up on the plantation there in Mississippi, I would work Monday through Saturday noon. I’d go to town on Saturday afternoons, sit on the street corner, and I’d sing and play.

At home, growing up, we weren’t really poor. We had everything we needed, we just didn’t have what we wanted.

I want to show every part of me and every color of me. And I think, growing up Albanian, I wanted to bring that to light.

As I got older, I got into all kinds of things in the streets – but for some reason, I never got caught up with the gangs growing up. Everybody dug me, man. I never had problems.

Growing up in Bombay, I saw many sick people.

Growing up under the heavy hand of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, it was drummed into me that attending weekly mass was not an option. It was a must to avoid eternal damnation, which was not a prospect filled with many positives. Hell fire was perpetual, and no parole would be offered.

When I was growing up in the house, we’d watch the Oscars.

In my neighborhood growing up, 8, 10,12 kids were the norm. Those stay-at-home moms would handle so much physically and emotionally. Even in my early teens, I could tell those ladies were something.

Growing up, I supported Manchester United, and my hero was Mark Hughes.

Growing up, I just loved movies. It was how I saw the world, which I wanted to learn more about.

When I was growing up, there were two things that were unpopular in my house. One was me, and the other was my guitar.

Growing up, I was fascinated with Buck Rogers’ airplanes. As I began to mature in World War II, it became jets and rocket planes. But it was always in the air.

I was born in Clinton, Mississippi, which had 1,500-2,500 people when I was growing up – a village.

Growing up, a film was an action film or it was a comedy or it was romantic, but you don’t really see such stark lines between genres nowadays.

Everyone, when you’re a teenager and you’re growing up, you do feel like your life is dramatic enough to be on a TV screen, but we know that it’s not.

Growing up in Australia and the way I was raised, my dad told me to play as a team and to be a team player. You have five guys on the court. It’s easy for five guys to defend one guy. It’s hard to guard five. It’s just a natural thing to do.

Growing up as a chubby kid with a ton of imaginary friends and a Cyndi Lauper obsession, I learned about rejection early on and was constantly trying to avoid it.

I suppose the desire to go to town helped make me ambitious, and the allure of the worlds that came in over the radio also helped. But the rewards of growing up on a farm were far greater in many ways than life in town.

When I was growing up on our 53-acre dairy farm, we were obsessed with food it was the center of our lives. We planted it, grew it, harvested it, peeled it, cooked it, served it, consumed it – endlessly, day after day, season after season.

Growing up, the news agents round my way in Kilburn all had ‘Time Out’ on their shopfronts. The logo is a London icon.

The older I get, the younger I feel. Growing up, I was always the kid, but I spoke like an adult and was in adult roles. I didn’t feel like a kid. The older I get, I actually feel younger! Which is good. I always thought when you get older, you’ll want to slow down, but I want to do even more.

You want to know what makes me tick, I’ll tell you what makes me tick. I was a boy growing up in Brooklyn I read a two-penny magazine called ‘The Hawk’s Nest.’ Nobody entered that nest that didn’t leave a little richer and a little wiser. And that 11-year-old boy said, ‘Isn’t that a wonderful thing.’ And that’s all there is to it.

That was my first love growing up – classical orchestral music, especially Impressionism.

I didn’t know when I was growing up that this was a very special program, that this wasn’t going on in other parts of the country. Now I realize that I was lucky.

I really thought, with my background growing up, and my service, and all that, I thought it would be enough for the presidency. But… It sure was enough when I ran for Congress.

My father was a very disciplined singer who worked hard at his craft, and I was around that growing up.

Growing up, I was always adamant that I would never do ‘Home and Away’ or ‘Neighbours,’ because as an actor you want to set your path as that serious kind of actor.

Twitter and Tumblr and Facebook, it’s so amazing because years ago, when I was growing up and watching movies, there was no way for us to interact with filmmakers at all. You could send a letter, and you’d never know if you were going to hear back or not.

So as I was growing up, my father was always in the middle of making a film or preparing a film. It was a full-time, all-consuming type of operation.

It sounds so negative of me to say, but I don’t feel like there were many coming-of-age films when I was growing up. I think that when I was a teenager, I felt really misrepresented in the teenage roles that I was watching onscreen. Especially in women.

I played tennis and softball, and we had horses, growing up.

The male singers who had the same range I did, when I was growing up, didn’t do much for me. But put on Nina Simone, Carmen McRae or Nancy Wilson, and I’d be in seventh heaven. Female vocalists just did more with their voices, and that’s why I paid more attention to them.

Growing up, I wasn’t an athlete or anything like that. The only place I felt like I belonged was in the theater.

I like flawed characters very much. A lot of times I get asked to do parts that are kind of small but key – three-scene roles that are three kick-ass scenes. Growing up, watching as many movies as I did, I was always into character actors like that.

I was in a bookstore one afternoon, and I stumbled across this book called ‘A Guide to Film Schools.’ I always loved movies growing up and had never even conceived that it was something you could do for a living. Realizing most of them were in Los Angeles and knowing that was warm, I ended up applying.

I have an older son, Josh, and growing up, he just didn’t care that much for baseball. And that was fine. But Chaddie, he always wanted to go to the ballpark. He just kind of took to it right away.

Growing up, I never saw Asian-Americans on TV at all.

L.A. Woman is amazing, but when I was growing up I was into the Who.

Growing up, I was the plain one. I had no style. I was the tough kid with the comb in the back pocket and the feathered hair.

Well, I don’t know how astute I am, but I did want to be a journalist when I was growing up.

Growing up, I played softball and I was a cheerleader.

But I stuttered as a kid. I went to classes to help it, and it just went away around fourth grade, when I became more aware of how others spoke, I think. But also, growing up in the South, a mumble is a way of speaking.

Growing up, I really liked ‘Star Wars.’ Han Solo would’ve been really cool to meet. But my stuff was real low-brow. I was watching ‘Bugs Bunny.’

I’ve raised three kids: my wife and I have three kids. I’ve observed through direct contact the adults they are now is partially the product of where they came from and what we did. With them growing up, but partially how they were wired at birth.

Growing up, my parents were my heroes, in the way they conducted their lives.

I was an athlete growing up and I miss that. I miss hanging out with dudes and making raunchy jokes and telling stories, trading details, you know? There’s something I really miss about that.

One of the places where we lived when I was growing up had this big wood out the back. And starting when I was about 8, I used to enjoy just walking alone through the wood late. Eleven p.m. Midnight. Later.

Growing up in New York City, I was always encouraged to question authority, and I think I confused patriotism with jingoism.

I like health-conscious cooking, but growing up in the South, I do love southern cooking southern France, southern Italy, southern Spain. I love southern cooking.

When I was growing up, I wasn’t an extrovert. If anything, I was an introverted kid and a very average pupil at school. I was very quiet.

Growing up, my mates and I would have rather been Sid Vicious or members of the Royal Family.

Growing up around British music, you realise how much depth there is to it… my stuff is different to the likes of Pitbull for that reason.

My waist used to be tiny. I just saw a picture of Miley Cyrus with a little crop top and low pants, and I’m like, ‘That was me growing up in Brazil!’ I had the typical model body, but after babies, it changed. I look more like a woman.

Growing up eating fruits and vegetables fresh from our farm added a lot to the way I taste and look at food today, and I wanted the same for my kids and other kids.

When I first joined the team, I was playing with the likes of Mia Hamm, Shannon MacMillan, Tiffeny Milbrett – all those big-time players. It was very intimidating. I had some of these players’ posters on my wall growing up, and now I was able to play with them.

Every single substitute teacher growing up could not pronounce my name, so whenever someone pauses, I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s me.’

No one knew I was gay growing up but I was bullied. I was a cheerleader, fairly popular and considered straight.

So many of the bands that influenced me growing up were English, even if I didn’t realise it. English pop ruled the world in the ’80s!

Growing up, I always liked Catwoman and Superman they inspired me.

I’d never really considered film. If I’d thought about film more growing up, I probably would have changed my name. I had no concept of my name in lights.

I grew up in a conservative small town, and the gay characters I saw on TV and in movies when I was growing up were all flamboyant and obnoxious and sometimes kind of annoying.

Growing up in the 1950s, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, boys were supposed to be athletic.

We weren’t poor growing up on Long Island, but it wasn’t lavish – just a regular middle-class house.

To be completely honest, it’s shocking to me that I keep getting the villain roles! I do not see myself as the villain and I know, growing up, I was the opposite of a villain. I would never try to be a villain to anyone – but maybe other people I grew up with feel differently about that.

When I was growing up, it was ‘Communists’. Now it’s ‘Terrorists’. So you always have to have somebody to fight and be afraid of, so the war machine can build more bombs, guns, and bullets and everything.

The girls show more skin these days, but I think, generally, they behave the same way as when I was growing up.

Growing up in Seattle, I was always that kid who didn’t subscribe to what everyone else was wearing.

Rock never meant the same thing to everyone, but when I was growing up in the late seventies, everyone could identify the five, ten bands that formed the center.

Growing up I played in garage bands and cover bands with my older brother, and he got us a gig opening up for some hippie jam band. I was 15. I felt like such an adult!

Growing up in Rhode Island, my friends would have strung me up if I had been a Yankees fan.

I’m not a comic person at all. It never reached me in the north of Ireland, in the ’60s and ’70s growing up. We used to get stupid comics like ‘The Topper’ and ‘The Beezer,’ things like that.

I’ve always liked trees. And then, growing up, I took an interest in ecology, hedges being destroyed, the landscape being turned into prairies.

Growing up, me and my brother, we were kind of exact opposites. We were completely yin and yang. He was more rough and tumble, and I just wanted to play with my girlfriends.

The only thing that I know is that, growing up, I came across stumbling blocks, and I always said to myself, ‘If I ever get into a position to do something about this, I would like to, so that somebody does not deal with what I went through.’

Growing up in Niagara Falls, Ontario, I took classes as a young girl and became very serious about ballet, and also performed with a local company, although it wasn’t a professional company.

I started modeling, doing the Sears catalog kind of thing, then did a lot of commercials when I was growing up.

Growing up, I used to go to an inlet to lay out and try to meet all the surfer guys.

When I was growing up in Nigeria – and I shouldn’t say Nigeria, because that’s too general, but in Afikpo, the Igbo part of the country where I’m from – there were always rites of passage for young men. Men were taught to be men in the ways in which we are not women that’s essentially what it is.

So many of the fantasy stories I encountered growing up were set in worlds that were largely modelled on medieval Europe in one way or another. Lots of white folks in feudal societies, castles and kings, that kind of thing.

My sights have always been on acting, on the creative process, never the lifestyle. Growing up in Northern Ireland when I did, everything was against you if you wanted to do something like that. But I was determined.

Growing up devouring horror comics and novels, and being inspired to become a writer because of horror novels, movies, and comic books, I always knew I was going to write a horror novel.

We were the only black family in an estate with 1,000 white families. Liverpool being quite racist in the Sixties, it was a bit grim growing up.

I never take storms as seriously as I should, which is probably not the way I should be handling it. I think it’s to do with growing up in New Orleans and having a hurricane, like, once a week.

I had never really felt settled in Brooklyn. I think it had to do with growing up in New Jersey and being someone who her whole life wanted to live in the city, and the city meant Manhattan.

I had a Super Grover doll growing up. Super Grover was very clumsy, he wasn’t very good-looking. But in his own way he’d always save the day.

Growing up, I’ve enjoyed hunting with my father.

Well, the stuff that I liked growing up was AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, but I also liked the Beatles and guys like Cat Stevens and Elton John.

Growing up a career cop, I was always taught, ‘Stay out of politics.’ I didn’t have any particular allegiance to any particular party.

I’m used to being around kids. Even when I was growing up in London, I had an older sister, I had a younger sister that I used to look after from time to time.

Basically, I was a kid growing up with a single mother in Brooklyn.

I used to watch my grandmother make fancy, Julia Child-style beef bourguignon. And growing up in New York City, I was exposed to many cultures. I experimented with Puerto Rican and Jamaican food.

When I was growing up, I went to an Irish-Christian missionary school.

I’m not a super blues player, but I was exposed to the Texas blues sound while I was growing up, and that definitely rubbed off on me.

My mama never wore a pair of pants when I was growing up, and now that’s all she wears. It was so funny for me when I first started seeing Mama wear pants. It was like it wasn’t Mama. Now I’ve bought her many a pantsuit because she just lives in them.

I had nothing growing up, but I always wanted to be ‘sexy,’ even before I knew what the word was.

There’s an unconscious bias in our society: girls are wonderful boys are terrible. And to be a boy, or young man, growing up, having to listen to all this, it must be painful.

Growing up, I was on film sets occasionally, when my dad was acting, so I got to run around and do odd jobs on films like ‘Labyrinth’ and others… I seemed destined to make films.

I played lots of games, and I was a fan of gaming, so I was always looking for new games. I was also a science fiction and fantasy fan, growing up, in games and books and movies.

I’ll never, ever be full. I’ll always be hungry. Obviously, I’m not talking about food. Growing up, I had nothing for such a long time. Someone told me a long time ago, and I’ve never forgotten it, ‘Once you’ve ever been hungry, really, really hungry, then you’ll never, ever be full.’

I grew up in a musical family the majority of my growing up was done in Hawaii. It’s what we do. You sing, you dance, you play ukulele and you drink.

When I was a kid, I loved Elvis, and Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. But I had no connection to Hollywood – and being a movie star was such a far-fetched idea, growing up in Hawaii.

I love going for a swim. Growing up in England, anywhere with a pool seems like the height of glamour to me.

Music enables me to cleanse and shed the things that I feel are holding me back from growing, or growing up.

Emotionally, shows like ‘Cheers’ and ‘Taxi’ were classic sitcoms when I was growing up.

When you watch the sitcoms that were the big hits when I was growing up, TV was still just TV. It was allowed to just be TV. There were three channels that were competing for the whole family and you couldn’t take your business elsewhere.

I didn’t grow up in one place, so I never had a certain mentality. I have some aspects of growing up in Texas, but I also have a lot of East Coast family. I would have loved to grow up on the East Coast.

Growing up, I really looked up to the classic Hollywood actors like Spencer Tracy, Robert Mitchum, and Peter Falk. I love character actors – I’ve never wanted to be the leading guy.

My grandfather was the king of a region in western Nigeria, where I had the privilege to live for seven years while growing up. But what we think of as royalty in the U.K. is very different to royalty in Nigeria: if you were to throw a stone there, you would hit about 30 princes.

Lars Ulrich, he was my hero growing up. I wanted to be like him. I played the drums.

In terms of Ray Liotta, when I was a teenager growing up in Colorado, I didn’t have pictures of girls on my wall. I had pictures of Ray Liotta on my wall. Along with Mike Patton, he was one of my heroes.

Bruce Lee was the first star I idolized. Growing up as a Chinese American, there weren’t many people like me on the big screen.

Growing up, I was in love with Jennifer Aniston from ‘Friends.’

Skateboarding was the only thing I was ever good at. Growing up, I was doing that from, like, dusk till dawn.

When I was growing up, and other people I knew were getting into trouble, I was somewhere in a deer stand or going to bed early so I could be up before dawn to hunt turkeys. My love of the outdoors kept me solid.

Growing up in Arizona, I love fireworks, shooting off bottle rockets and M80s.

I never listen to Led Zeppelin. But, I mean, I don’t think Robert Plant or Jimmy Page listen to Led Zeppelin, either. We all probably obsessed over the same old blues records growing up.

Devo and The Cramps didn’t get big until they went to New York City. Chrissie Hynde didn’t get big until she moved to London. When I was growing up, there wasn’t even a place to play – just one little bar. If we wanted to have a gig, then we had to drive 45 minutes up to Cleveland.

Growing up, my idols were Lucky Luke and Jolly Jumper. And Scottie Pippen.

When I was growing up, I always read horror books, while my sister read romance novels.

I loved ‘Harry Potter’ growing up. I’m dyslexic and a slow reader, but I could get through the thick ones in days!

I always loved comic books when I was growing up, and Spider-Man was definitely a character I gravitated towards because I loved the story of an average teenager having super powers.

Food as a hobby used to be an elite pastime, and it has become something that is totally ordinary for people of every background. In that way, we see the growing up of the American food scene: that it’s okay to be a regular person and be really into food.

Clearly, the works of John Carpenter and Sam Raimi are front and center here. Argento is definitely there. But even stuff like the ‘Friday the 13th’ movies had quite an influence on me growing up.

I am actually a big sissy, and growing up, I never used to watch horror movies. ‘Bambi’ gave me nightmares.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time on film sets all over the world.

When I was growing up, I always knew that if I ever got anything, I was going to give back as much as I can. I learned that all you have to be willing to do is give your time.

When I was growing up in the early ’70s and really getting into music, waiting outside the record store for that 45, waiting for a single from The Dead, The Clash, David Bowie, or T-Rex or something to be there. There was something about that that was so special.

Growing up in a band is weird – you get stuck hanging on to what it is you think you are. But what I took into Depeche was that punk ethic, that you don’t have to be accomplished to be a musician. If you’ve got ideas, you can do this.

Growing up in a Mennonite background, there’s not much media.

My grandmother was born in 1900, and she would regale me with tales I call ‘Little House on the Prairie’ tales, but they were tales of segregated and racist America growing up in Alabama and Mississippi, where she came from.

I’m 48, and I have been in love with vampires since I was six. I was born in 1962, so I’ve been through three or four waves of vampires. When I was growing up, we had vampire shows and movies. We were still dealing with Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and the old Christopher Lee vampires.

I actually got to write with one of my musical heroes, a guy named Raine Maida from Our Lady Peace. I got to sit down and write some songs with him, and that was pretty heavy. I listened to Our Lady Peace growing up. It got me through the teenage angst.

It’s funny, because music is one of those things it is natural to go into. You hear it so much growing up, it kind of permeates you and eventually you spew out some music of your own.

No one in the group was really growing up besides me, which is pretty weird ’cause there was no one in that group more self-destructive than I was.

We have to mainstream everybody. No matter what their circumstances when they were growing up. Part of that is knowing that after they’re finished with school, everybody in this country gets up and goes to work.

I’m actually a Type 1 diabetic, so growing up, I had to eat pretty healthy.

Slumdog’ was my first movie, and I had never been to India before – I was just a teenager in the U.K. with my headphones and my Nike shoes. What did I know about growing up in a slum?

I was very protected growing up. My dad was very strict with me. I was the oldest of four kids, and there are three girls. So I kind of paved the way of what it was like to raise a teenage daughter.

I was actually born in Miami. We would spend the summers there growing up, so it’s like my second home.

My brother and I, we were both relatively good-looking guys growing up, but we had our awkward stages, where we were just hard to look at.

To be honest, I was kind of a shy kid growing up.

Growing up in a cold place, in Southern Ontario, Woolrich was a brand of choice for us because it was always warm and comfortable. The parka with the fur on it was standard fare for us. It’s extraordinary that they have kept up with the times. Beyond the parka, they have changed, and they have some pretty hip, cool items which I wear.

Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, I grew up around a lot of Jews. I grew up culturally Jewish, ethnically Jewish, but without real belief and without a strong faith.

Growing up, I wasn’t sure about acting, but I knew I wanted to be part of the movie industry.

Home wasn’t a pleasant place to live, growing up.

I was a typical teen growing up in the 1960s, when everybody was into gurus and meditation.

Growing up, I absolutely loved skateboarding and dirt bike riding with my brother and the neighborhood kids.

Growing up in Boston and dancing in the streets, you see a lot of things.

When I was growing up, I always wanted to be somebody else and live somewhere else. I’ve always felt a little uncomfortable around people.

When I was growing up, I just wanted to be somewhere else. I didn’t like living in Knockemstiff, and I figured when I got older, I’d move off to some big city.

Margaret Thatcher, growing up in a bombed and battered Britain, derived a distrust which has grown with the years not just of Germany but of all continental Europe.

I was big as a kid, very overweight. That caused a lot of insecurities for me growing up, and on top of that, I didn’t like the idea of big crowds. I found it quite frightening. I enjoy the company of people who I know, and I’m probably still like that today.

Chick Corea was a great influence on me, musically, as I was growing up.

Growing up, I didn’t have a lot and always wanted things. But I was too prideful to ask for anything I always worked for it.

Mom and sister played piano growing up my grandma still plays piano in church. They always beat me over the head trying to get me to play piano, but I was more interested in riding dirt bikes and playing in the mud.

I’m not changing to the point where suddenly I wear floor-length skirts and start playing the violin I’m just growing up a little bit, I guess.

Growing up, I always wanted to sing.

When I was growing up and trying to get my foot on the ladder, I had the self-belief that my mother taught me, and it never occurred to me that anything could go wrong. I’ve learned life can’t be like that.

Growing up as a high jumper, I said if I could ever jump 2.40, I’d be pretty satisfied with my career. It’s definitely a barrier for high jumpers.

Growing up, Paul Newman seemed like the ultimate manly actor. And then, I got to work with him and we became friends, so that was nice.

My mother was a huge Steelers fan, so they were my team growing up.

When I was growing up, Green Day had just come out.

Growing up, I was inspired by The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Damian Rice was a huge influence for me musically.

Growing up, I liked all the stuff that everyone else was listening to, like Motown, but the biggest group of all was The Beatles.

When I was growing up and listening to bands like the Dave Clark Five, the groove was what initially got me going. I really like that funky, heavy groove.

There was a computer in our garage when I was growing up, and I’d go out there in winter and wrap myself in a blanket and write a story.

I just feel like every kid is growing up too fast and they’re seeing too much. Everything is about sex, and that’s fine for me. I’m not saying I don’t like it. But I don’t think it should be everywhere, where kids are exposed to everything sexual. Because they have to have some innocence there’s just no innocence left.

I was working on ‘Harry Potter’ while I was growing up, and the attention it brought me made me feel quite isolated.

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.

When I was growing up, hip-hop was still a pretty specialised thing.

Notre Dame was my dream school growing up. But in recruiting, they had some other plans, what position they wanted me to play.

Having been bullied growing up, it’s something that’s really near and dear to my heart. You probably won’t have many friends on Snapchat if you’re being a jerk.

Professionally, I remember Cronkite as a kid growing up, and more so for me, the importance of Cronkite was not him sitting there at the anchor desk, but him out there doing things.

Growing up in Georgia, it was sort of the last place to jump on the bandwagon of the integrated frontier. I have aunts and uncles and grandparents that experienced the ‘whites only’ and segregated schools.

Growing up, I had one very specific idea of what a wedding should be, and that was the wedding of Fraulein Maria and Captain von Trapp in ‘The Sound of Music.’

It’s so funny, because when I was growing up in a small town in New Hampshire, I was obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio – from the ‘Growing Pains’/’What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’ era, because he was superhot – and I carried a laminated photo of him in my wallet and said he was my boyfriend. But no one believed me.

I never felt cool growing up. I was a bit of an outsider, but I discovered theatre very early on, which got me through.

Growing up, one of my cousins was an out gay man.

As a Latino growing up in Spanish harlem, it’s not easy trying not to be hot-headed.

When you’re physically growing up, you develop emotionally with that.

Growing up, I had an insane crush on Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys.

While I was growing up, all the boys used to be my buddies. I never got that special kind of attention from them, and I was the tomboy around. Although I’ve become an actress today, I still have those traits.

When I was growing up in the U.S. in the 1970s, 35-40% of an average nightly newscast focused on international stories.

I mean, like a lot of kids growing up in the early seventies, I was fed Dr. Kissinger with my Fruit Loops. He was the Dr. Ruth of American foreign policy, and the model statesman.

Growing up in Vancouver, it’s not like growing up, you know, in Middle America or the middle of Canada or something. It’s a very movie town.

In the pie chart of my brain growing up, there’s a huge slice for ‘Ghostbusters.’

Growing up in a small town gives you two things: a sense of place and a feeling of self-consciousness – self-consciousness about one’s education and exposure, both of which tend to be limited. On the other hand, limited possibilities also mean creating your own options.

In terms of comedians, I loved, growing up, Jonathan Winters, Sid Caesar, Jackie Gleason, Phil Silvers, Carol Burnett, all those people.

When you were growing up in the 30s, 20s, of course the 40s, all black people at least in the Washington, D.C., area were required to live among themselves.

I can think of no one that my grandparents knew, that told me stories and that I experienced myself, had any sense of social inferiority growing up in segregated Washington. None whatsoever.

Growing up as a kid in Detroit, way back, there was a movie station that would show old kinescope reproductions of old movies, and I remember seeing Bela Lugosi for the first time and being duly frightened out of my wits.

I loved movies, growing up. They brought me so much joy.

I’m 36 years old, and I’m growing up. Little by little.

My grandfather was a massive influence in my music. Growing up, he would play a lot of old-school records to me. A lot of jazz and swing music, actually, growing up.

I feel like that’s so ingrained in so many children that you are so confined and repressed growing up that, anything you do, you have to rebel against it at some point.

I was really heavy growing up, so it was never feeling like the pretty girl, never being popular.

I wasn’t able to relate to anyone on TV growing up, so I wanted to bring my own experiences to the screen.

I know I always had a lot of energy growing up and I had to put it somewhere. Theater allowed me to really feel things, to laugh, to cry, to explode outward. I could do anything and it was totally accepted and appreciated. If I hadn’t gone into the theater, I probably would have been a psychotic killer.

I didn’t have a pool growing up, and we went to the beach to lay out and get sun.

I always loved the look of musicians. I’ve always admired them because they have a look – when I was growing up, it seemed that the ones I liked didn’t need to have a stylist.

We didn’t have much money growing up, so we hopped around L.A. a lot in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. I’m very familiar with the shifting culture there.

When I was growing up, I thought I was getting bored of acting, so I left that. Then after a few years, I started missing it. I left my studies mid-way, and I used to give lots of auditions.

I think that when something happens when you’re growing up, like a death or divorce, it does open the world slightly because things aren’t as straightforward.

My baby will be growing up in Liverpool, so we have another Scouser.

I played baseball growing up, second base, and then when I got to high school,it just didn’t exist there.

When people see what I have now, they have no idea of where I came from and how I didn’t have anything growing up.

Growing up, I was vaguely aware of things that went on in church, because I was in the boys’ choir at the local Episcopal church. But I got the clear message that I was supposed to learn music there, and not pay too much attention to the rest of it, and I followed those instructions very carefully.

I remember growing up with television, from the time it was just a test pattern, with maybe a little bit of programming once in a while.

Growing up in Denver, I’m sure it started with loving the Colorado mountains.

I love to see a wood full of bluebells. Growing up in the Kent countryside, I have special memories of this brief annual spectacle.

I was very, very sick when I was growing up in Russia. The ambulance constantly came to our house. I had horrible asthma that is easily treated in America, but they didn’t even have inhalers back in Russia.

It took me realizing that a broken heart has never actually killed anyone to find the courage to ask for what I want, in just about every situation. That was part of my own growing up.

Growing up in Memphis, I have always admired St. Jude’s for the magnificent work they do.

I can’t stop watching ‘Pan Am.’ When I was growing up, my father worked as an engineer in Turkey, and we always flew Pan Am. The stewardesses were so glamorous! When they gave me a set of those golden wings, I felt very grown-up. Not only is the show’s plot full of mystery and infidelity, they get the period details just right.

My parents were very poor, but we never felt any sense of need or want. It was a very close, loving, tightly-knit family growing up, and I never felt any sense of deprivation or anything like that.

When I was growing up, kids used to talk about snitching… It never extended as a cultural norm outside of the gangsters.

We’re all just trying to fit in and find ourselves, particularly when we’re growing up.

This is going to sound really sad, but I didn’t really have any heartthrobs when I was growing up. I was a bit of a geek.

I’ve always sung. I was really into musical theater when I was growing up. As a kid, I listened to Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone, actually, on cassette tapes.

I never wanted to be like anyone growing up. It’s always been about the enjoyment, and I’ve just never wanted to imitate anyone.

Growing up in the Sacramento Valley in the ’70s, we were all pretty big into cars. Of course, I had to nerd out and be a fan of Bob Tullius’ Group 44 Jaguars instead of Corvettes/Camaros.

When I was growing up, I did go to the arcade. We had a neighborhood arcade, and my friends and I would go fairly regularly.

Dwayne McDuffie was one of my favorite writers. When I was growing up, he was one of the few African Americans working in American comics.

When I was growing up in the United States and Sweden, I never thought about becoming a politician.

My thighs were huge they were like rock! Growing up, I was really athletic, and I had a very athletic body.

Freddie Mercury, to me, was probably the most important frontman to me growing up.

I came from a very strict background, and didn’t hear any Jamaican music when I was growing up.

Growing up in Jamaica, the Pentecostal church wasn’t that fiery thing you might think. It was very British, very proper. Hymns. No dancing. Very quiet. Very fundamental.

There wasn’t anyone in my family who was involved in the theatre. I saw a few amateur plays when I was growing up, but I can’t think of anything that happened or anybody in particular who inspired me it all came from within.

When I was growing up, I would go hang out with older guys at night in blues clubs.

Growing up, I was in and out of trouble in group homes and other institutions, and when I was 14, I was locked up in a psychiatric hospital for a number of months for behavioral problems.

I was a big fan of Jean-Claude Van-Damme growing up, and I always wanted to be a martial artist ’cause of him.

Although we didn’t have much when I was growing up in Split, Croatia, my parents always tried to ensure that my sister and I had the things we needed, and it was enough for us.

As the daughter of immigrants, growing up in New York City, you are either at the table or on the menu.

When I was growing up, golf was the geeky sport. No one really wanted to be associated with it.

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 was always interested in myths growing up. So, first I got into some Roman myths, then I was interested in Norse, then Celtic, then I started spreading to all the other mythologies.

Turtles’ was by far my favourite TV show when I was growing up. It would be the show that I would wanna watch more than anything. We’d record it on the big VHS tapes, and I’d watch it before school, after school, on the weekend, wear the costume, have all the weapons.

When I was growing up in South Korea in the ’70s and early ’80s, the country was too poor to buy original records. Everything was bootlegged.

While I was growing up all over, in all my different schools, I was always doing theater, auditioning for plays.

Growing up, I remember watching TV, and I didn’t see a lot of people who looked like me, especially someone who passed as a glamorous model on a mainstream TV show.

When I was growing up, Keane and Sheringham were my idols, and they wore 10. So it was always my dream to wear it.

Switzerland felt incredibly narrow, growing up. It was good, in a way. There were so many museums. But it was always a no-brainer that I would have to leave, and I’m grateful for that.

Children are very addicting. Once they start growing up, you miss when they were little.

As a young person growing up in Washington, D.C., summers were hot, humid and relentless. My friends and I grew more restless and adventurous with every passing year.

When I was growing up, I was told I was stupid and that I would never achieve. I suffered from dyslexia, and in those days it wasn’t recognised.

But in another world, another life, probably growing up in another country, I might have been more of a dancer.

I was a huge fan of comedy and movies and TV growing up, and I was able to memorize and mimic a lot of things, not realizing that that meant I probably wanted to be an actor. I just really, really amused myself and my friends with memorizing entire George Carlin or Steve Martin albums.

You know, I was a huge fan of comedy and movies and TV growing up, and I was able to memorize and mimic a lot of things, not realizing that that meant I probably wanted to be an actor.

Growing up in Louisiana, my grandmother gave me an accordion because of our Cajun heritage. What ended up happening was I started learning about more instruments, so I just kind of went that route. Music’s really all I’ve ever done.

Korea taught me nothing, for no one spoke of it when I was growing up, except as something about how wonderful the girls in Japan were. Vietnam taught some of us more than we perhaps ever wished to know.

Growing up, I felt insecure about my build. I didn’t feel very feminine. But as time went on, I learned to completely embrace my body.

When I was growing up, Asians were so few and far between as to be almost invisible. And so the idea of an Asian American movement or an Asian American thrust in this country was unthinkable.

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 in the States, there’s this part of me that’s like, man, I’m Indian. Like, this is where I belong. And as soon as I got to India, and I had to go to the bathroom in some places, I was, like, ‘Man – I am American.’

I brought in a yogurt master from Turkey. I went to Greece. I was always going back and forth, from New York to Turkey and Greece. The recipe we use has been around hundreds and hundreds of years. Growing up in Turkey, not a day would go by that we wouldn’t eat yogurt like this.

I grew up in the United Methodist Church, and church was always a very big part of my growing up.

I’m from northern Virginia, but I grew up next to the West Virginia border, so it was hills and farmland. We had that sense of adventure you get from growing up around old farmhouses and lazy, rolling hills, you know?

Growing up in a lower-income family, you don’t have the resources to make ends meet and you have to find creative ways to get by.

Is it possible that literacy standards are falling because young Australians are growing up in a culture in which they can be entertained and informed, and in which they can communicate effectively, without having to master any but the most rudimentary literacy skills?

I knew I wanted to be an actor when I was growing up, really. So when I decided to go to university instead of drama school, it was with the intention of becoming an actor afterwards.

Growing up in Sweden, I decided pretty early on that I wanted to go to acting school.

I think men, growing up, you have to go through some form of hardship. You’ve got to harden the metal.

When I was growing up in Russia, my grandmothers would cook the best pancakes in the world, the best meatballs, the best dumplings.

Skeptical of strangers, lobstermen are keepers of secrets, working in the howling wind and hot sun, the icy snows, and bewildering fog. When I was growing up, the lore was that they had the right to shoot anyone who messed with their traps.

When I was growing up in Israel, Cantorial music was something I heard over and over on the radio, so it wasn’t at all strange to me. I was very familiar with the music.

The Trump World Tower was home growing up, and it’s where my office is.

When I was growing up, my dad didn’t have weights, so he made himself a weight bench. Instead of a hand-me-down jacket, it was a hand-me-down weight bench.

I’m a Slovak. And when I was growing up, I believed that I was Czechoslovakian because of what Russia did. They came in and took two separate countries – Slovakia and the Czech Republic – put them together as one.

Growing up doing those Kiwanis Clubs, doing those Cub Scout banquets, doing those church shows, I learned to find that sensibility that most people could laugh at – that all ages and demographics could laugh at.

When I was growing up, my mother would take me to plays and museums, and we’d talk about life. Those times helped shape who I became.

The best gift I was ever given was the arts. My mum gave me those on a silver platter. Growing up, her and my grandmother would take me to ballets, classical concerts, even smoky jazz clubs I wasn’t supposed to be in!

It seems like when I was growing up there was more compromise, wanting to work with each other, and I think all of them – all of the lawmakers – have hearts to do what’s right, and they all are passionate about it.

When I was growing up in rural Alabama, it was impossible for me to register to vote. I didn’t become a registered voter until I moved to Tennessee, to Nashville, as a student.

Growing up, my favorite TV show was ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’, hands down.

Of all bugs, growing up I just loved the pill bugs. They roll up, you play with them, you wait for them to open up, and then when you touch them they roll up again. I just love that.

Believe it or not, I was a pretty shy youngster growing up.

We weren’t allowed to have secular music in the house growing up. I was home-schooled, and gospel was the only choice we had.

That was the big thing when I was growing up, singing on the radio. The extent of my dream was to sing on the radio station in Memphis. Even when I got out of the Air Force in 1954, I came right back to Memphis and started knocking on doors at the radio station.

I was always a storyteller. I just didn’t know it. I never shared the stories I made up inside my head when I was growing up. I never wrote them down, either. But I can’t remember a time when they weren’t there.

Buffy’ is about growing up. ‘Angel’ is really about already having grown up, dealing with what you’ve done, and redemption.

I never tire of the heroes that I knew growing up. The fun is not that much different from doing a television show: You’re stuck with a certain set of rules, and then, rather than trying to break them, it’s just trying to peel away and see what’s underneath them. That to me is really fun.

I didn’t watch a lot of American television growing up. I just liked to read a lot and watch movies – movies, movies, and more movies. My family used to make fun of me because I’d like every movie I saw.

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 grew up in a semi-attached row house in Queens in New York. And my family and my grandparents and my father’s from Brooklyn, and so you’re essentially an outer boroughs kid, you’re growing up.

Language-wise, my mom and dad’s dialect, they’re pretty obscure. It’s Chinese, but not your traditional Chinese, like Cantonese or Mandarin. It wasn’t something that I got to use very much growing up. We eventually just spoke English around the house.

I was a skinny guy growing up, and I still feel like that same skinny kid.

I was very lucky growing up, and I got all my dad’s and aunts’ toys from the 1950s and 1960s and loved those old pedal cars.

I was very independent growing up, but there were things that were bothering me that I never told anybody. I would talk to our animals at home.

Tattoos’ reminds me of where I’m from, and some of the stuff I did when I was growing up. That was one of the things that was appealing about the song when I heard it the first time.

I was the teenage kid growing up in New Jersey watching the Tony Awards and thinking, ‘Oh, maybe if I’m lucky I’ll make it to Broadway by the time I’m 40!’

Yeah I loved, as a kid growing up, I loved science-fiction.

I want to know why we exist and what I can do while I’m existing. Basically. it’s learning how to exist, wholely, consciously. Growing up on fast food and television shows, you can easily forget to exist. You can even be treated as if you don’t.

Many of Judy Blume’s books – which I devoured when I was growing up and where I found characters that were believable because they were a lot like me – caused considerable consternation when they were first published, but now they’re widely accepted as an essential part of the children’s literary canon.

Growing up where I did, the thought of working on a television show or in a movie… that existed on a parallel plane, you know?

Armando Iannucci is one of my heroes. As I was growing up, he was probably the most influential comic voice that I had.

New Jersey shaped who and what I am. Growing up in Jersey gave you all the advantages of New York, but you were in its shadow. Anyone who’s come from here will tell you that same story.

When I was growing up, I always thought my hair was messy.

When I was growing up, the place I felt least alone was when I was reading.

I sang in church growing up. Memphis is the blues capital of the world, we like to say.

Growing up, you’d see Michael Jordan on everything from Gatorade to shoes – everything. Obviously, that’s something pretty cool for an athlete to aspire to.

Growing up as a kid, we moved all over the country on a fairly frequent basis, from New Jersey to Texas, California, Illinois… we moved 21 times in my first 17 years.

Growing up, I wish that I’d had the supplies and laptops and all the new technology that’s out right now.

Growing up in college, in high school, I was the focal point.

Growing up, I was prone to anxiety.

I played a ton of team sports growing up, and team wins are just incredibly gratifying.

One of my favorite things about the DC Universe, growing up as a reader, was just how big it was and just how many characters and superheroes there were. And how many odd characters there were.

I am a huge hip-hop fan, and growing up, I only listened to hip-hop, so I dressed accordingly.

When I was growing up, the first thing I wanted to be was a cowboy. That lasted till I was about ten. Then I wanted to be a baseball player. Preferably shortstop for the New York Yankees.

Growing up in Texas, mum had five girls to feed on a very limited budget, so we’d end up eating the same thing until it was gone – some weeks it was carrots.

I always talk with models and they always tell me how awful it was growing up being tall and skinny. Then when you’re older, you’re really glad. I think it’s nice to have been through a terrible time and then all of a sudden be so lucky because then you appreciate it.

Growing up in New York, we lived all around the city depending on our economic circumstance. I also lived in Puerto Rico for a number of years.

Growing up, I lived in a house without art: no picture books on the shelves, no visits to museums, no posters on the bedroom wall.

I spent every bit of my money to try and get a Mickey Mantle card, and I don’t have one. Growing up in Oklahoma, Mickey Mantle was my idol. And here I am, and I’d go pick cotton to have enough money, and I’d buy all of these packs, and I’d chew all of the gum, and I’d never find a Mickey Mantle card.

I was an amusement and water park fiend as a kid growing up. I loved them. My brothers and I would go whenever we could. We liked all the super steep/fast slides and flumes where you would get completely soaked. Our absolute favorite was the tubes, though.

My idol growing up was Charlie Chaplin. I was obsessed with him. I mean, while other kids were watching Jim Carrey and the likes in the ’90s, I was watching Charlie Chaplin films, because I was a bit of a geek. I became obsessed with this idea of physical comedy.

For me, growing up in Los Angeles in the ’90s, Huell Howser was the most consistently watchable entertainer on TV. I was more of a radio geek as a teenager, but Huell I watched whenever I got the chance. A lot of us did.

Growing up, when I was at live shows, I was always hoping someone would come out on stage and say, ‘The guitarist is sick and couldn’t make it… does anybody know how to play all the songs?’ That was always my little dream. It was a massively inspiring thing to be in a space with live shows.

Growing up in England, I was constantly surrounded by the Arthurian legend.

I am an Asian designer. I was born in Taiwan. That is who I am. But I am a designer, like any designer of any race. Growing up in the ’80s in Taiwan, the arts were not considered a career.

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.

When I was growing up, it was Clint Eastwood, it was Harrison Ford and Steve McQueen – these guys were tough. They were leading men, but they were also tough and physical.

The music that I’m known for is quiet and gentle, although when I was growing up and as a teenager, I was playing the opposite – I was screaming and playing bass and those loud electric guitars.

I listened to all the Misfits albums growing up and Red Hot Chili Peppers, too.

Young alienation, disappointment and heartache is all a part of the first real growing up that we do.

I don’t think I ever thought of growing up to be anything other than a musician. There really wasn’t a plan B. Well, a kind of a distant plan B was to be a Formula One driver, but there really wasn’t an entry point.

I found my first dinosaur bone when I was 6, growing up in Montana. Ever since then I’ve been interested in dinosaurs.

I was a Depression kid, growing up in Oklahoma.

For me, it’s about being comfortable… but I can feel comfortable in a thong leotard and on stage. Growing up as a dancer, that’s how I’m comfortable in my body. It’s about where you grew up and those things it’s a way of communicating your spirit to the world.

Acting for kids is like playing house, you know? But growing up in Hollywood, it just made it seem possible.

I feel like everything you learn as an actor growing up is wrong. You’re supposed to hit your mark, find your light and know your lines. Those are all things that just make things wooden, dull and boring.

Like all girls, when I was growing up, I always worried about this bit of me being too fat or that bit. But I look back at pictures of me when I was young, and I was thin and gorgeous.

Growing up, my brother and I were begging for attention.

When I was growing up, I wasn’t taught how to feel or communicate feelings.

My dad and my uncles owned a bar outside of Cincinnati. I worked there growing up, mopping floors, waiting tables.

A solitary child growing up in Africa, you’re really quite dependent on books.

One of my favorite places is Seattle. Growing up, I never thought I’d be able to go to Seattle. I grew up in eastern South Carolina, so that’s as far as you can get from Seattle, unless I lived in Miami.

Sometimes it feels like I’ve been in the business forever, but then other times, it feels like kind of a flash. Growing up, all I wanted to do was sing. All I wanted to do was get on a bus and ride around the country and sing for people and be a household name.

Growing up, all I did was write about the fact that I’m from where I’m from. I was a big champion of where I was from and Wisconsin in general, and the Midwest.

When I lived in China, there were no libraries. My mother bought books for me, and they were mostly the classics. I read ‘Peter Pan,’ ‘The Secret Garden,’ the ‘Rosemary’ books, and Kipling’s ‘Just So’ Stories was one of my favorites. No, I didn’t read historical fiction. It didn’t exist where I was growing up in China.

When I was growing up, I was always on stage but I loved other things.

While growing up, every sitcom you could think of, I would watch it, and I loved it.

I didn’t read comic books, growing up. I was more of a science fiction/fantasy novel guy. I loved reading Edgar Rice Burroughs’ ‘Tarzan’ and that kind of stuff.

I didn’t really watch ‘Dallas’ growing up, as I was a bit young and into other things, like sports.

Growing up, being watched from the outside… it’s kind of very taxing and maybe I should just do some kind of manual labor-it might be more relaxing. But I can’t, it’s not in my nature.

Growing up in the Philippines, I loved all kinds of movies. We had a very healthy film industry there when I was a child.

As a youngster, I played in Little League, Pony League, and all sorts of amateur baseball programs growing up.

I was trying to write an autobiography using prints and patterns that reference emotional, psychological, and personal development in my work, as a person growing up, figuring out who I was. I used fabrics to stand in for occurrences.

I grew up in a little town with about 6,000 or 7,000 people. I always knew from 11 or 12 years old that I wanted to be a writer, and I always wanted to write about growing up in a place like that that’s small and you don’t fit into.

I think it would be very scary and very confusing if I didn’t understand where people are coming from, but I’ve felt the exact same way for so many other bands, growing up. It’s not really a big deal.

Growing up, it was mainly just players I followed more than teams, with the exception of the Mariners. I never really had time to follow a team throughout a season.

As a kid growing up, I put a lot of pressure on myself.

I would think, to me, growing up in the south, growing up with all the gospel music, singing in the church and having that rhythm and blues – the blues background was my big inspiration.

When I was growing up, the top movies dealt with grown-up, complex emotions.

In the scattered settlements of this Diocese, schools and Churches are of necessity for many years few in number, and multitudes of both sexes are growing up in great ignorance.

I was a huge Muppet fan growing up. I want to bring it back to the early ’80s Muppet movies, when the scripts could have been performed by humans.

I’ve done quite a lot of growing up in public, which has been tricky at times.

When I was growing up, there was no such thing as a touring ukulele player.

I’ve never had a roommate, even when I was growing up.

Growing up in inner-city Glasgow, it sometimes seemed to me money hadn’t been invented.

Growing up, I was picked on a bit I was pretty heavy-set, and then I was a theater kid. I just felt unpopular and uncool, so I think in my mind I had this idea of fame and being popular and how nice that would be. The reality of it is sometimes it’s not nice.

My aunt Marcia Cope-Hart was in ‘Phantom Of the Opera’ in San Francisco for quite a few years when I was growing up, so we would go into the city a lot to see her.

At the same time it offered the hope, as it still does, that improved understanding could better the lot of mankind. For me, growing up in the 1930s, the two motivations powerfully reinforced each other.

Growing up, I was very much interested in jazz music.

Relationships, if you want them to work, take work. The biggest thing that I learned growing up, and even now, is if it’s right, it’s worth it. It’s just a matter of finding that person you want to be with.

My absolute idols growing up were Michael Jackson and Prince, and so, to get the stamp of approval from someone like Timbaland whom I know that these artists respect, that is a huge feat.

I turned up my nose at yoga for years. I was a rugby player growing up. But now I know. When I’m on those long international flights, like 22 hours from L.A. to Sydney, I’ll get up sometimes and do yoga in the aisle just to stretch out a little bit.

Growing up, my sisters were both into dancing, so I went to a lot of dance recitals, mostly because there were always pretty girls in leotards.

I was a big fan of ‘The Smurfs’ growing up, even though by default – my mom used to force me to watch because she was a ‘Smurfs’ fan.

Growing up, I always dreamed of winning a major championship.

Growing up, I didn’t know anybody who didn’t have a miner in the family. Both of my grandfathers were miners.

I had, probably, a more challenging experience growing up than most middle-class chicks.

Growing up in Florida, it rained a lot, so we spent a lot of time indoors. I used to love Frogger. I got a lot of use out of that and Ms. Pac-man on my little Atari.

Growing up, my sisters and I would always talk stories. One of my frustrations was I didn’t know anything about cameras. I didn’t know how to make a film and I obviously didn’t have a special effects budget. I was a kid. So I was learning to draw to get down the stuff that was in my head, that I couldn’t afford to actually do.

I have not been to Cuba, though if you count the stories my grandma told me growing up, I’ve been there in my head many times. I think someday I will see it, when things are different there, but I’ve come to feel like I really am a Miami girl.

I never realized that growing up in Brooklyn, flying jets, working on Wall Street and starring in a sci-fi series was the prerequisite for the fast-paced demands of talk radio. But, if that’s what it takes to succeed, I’m glad I did it all.

I was brought up in black neighborhoods in South Baltimore. And we really felt like we were very black. We acted black and we spoke black. When I was a kid growing up, where I came from, it was hip to be black. To be white was kind of square.

Every sport has its dangers. I’ve been pretty lucky, knock on wood. But I’ve had really confident, brave and smart horses growing up, which I think is important when you’re young. You are working with massive animals over big fences, and especially at this top level, there is really no room for error.

I can understand the dilemma of growing up in a bubble, and then not knowing what to do when unemployment beckons and reality bursts in.

Growing up, I never felt like the pretty girl.

Before ‘Austenland,’ I got do a lead role in ‘Northanger Abbey’, which is Jane Austen. Growing up in England, you can’t really ignore Jane Austen. It’s always been there.

Growing up, I started to realize I was surrounded by people who were passionately alive. Seventh Street felt raw, but I found it incredibly theatrical.

I will sing whatever I’m given to sing. Growing up, I would sing anything that I was given. If the choir needed a first tenor, I would sing first tenor. If they needed a bass, I would sing bass. Throughout my life, I just figured out ways to hit notes I needed to hit.

My favorites growing up were always Billy Joel, Michael Jackson… and Placido Domingo.

Growing up I was a total movie-holic, but I always wanted to play the role that Clark Gable was playing or Spencer Tracy was playing. I was really never interested in the parts that women were playing. I found the parts that guys were playing were so much more interesting.

Ours was not a political household, when I was growing up.

When I was growing up, I was really into ‘Rent’ and I actually slept on the street in New York all night to get to sit in the first few rows for it.

Growing up in California, I obviously knew about our deep connections with the Japanese.

I love movin’. I was observant growing up, watching Michael Jackson and John Travolta. I’d close my eyes, see the moves.

Words played an important part in my growing up. Not only the written word… but words that flew through the air: jokes, riddles, puns.

I grew up in Berkeley and my parents were hippies, obviously, since my name’s ‘Jorma.’ I didn’t watch much television growing up because they weren’t into it at all.

Growing up in Rhode Island, I dreamed of a career in law enforcement. That hasn’t worked out exactly as I had planned, but life seldom does.

My favorite comic book growing up was ‘Thor.’ It was one of my three, favorite comic books. Obviously, Marvel is such a huge name, but for me, to book a role in a Marvel movie, and for it to be ‘Thor.’ When my manager told me I booked ‘Thor,’ I literally didn’t know what to say.

I went to an international school in Holland, and I didn’t have any memories of growing up in the United States or England or any of these places which other novelists are able to write about in relation to their childhoods.

I spent a lot of time on farms when I was growing up, and I’ve been obsessed with the practical logic of farmyards – the turning radius of tractors, where the chickens and ducks might go. It’s not a place where stand-alone aesthetic decisions make a lot of sense.

Growing up, my two favorite books were Woody Allen’s ‘Side Effects’ and Phyllis Diller’s ‘Housekeeping Hints.’ I carried that Phyllis Diller book with me everywhere when I was in fifth or sixth grade. Eventually, it just fell apart.

When you’re a kid growing up, you say you want to make it to the Major Leagues, and when you reach that dream, that’s what it’s all about.

When I was a kid growing up in Cleveland, I believed – completely, wholeheartedly, without reservation or pause – that the Cleveland Indians were named to honor a Native American ballplayer named Louis Sockalexis, who played for Cleveland in the late 19th Century.

Growing up in Huntington Beach, you were either a traditional sports athlete, a skateboarder, or a surfer. I got my first skateboard when I was five and skated off and on over the years, did a little BMX racing as a kid, and then in my freshman or sophomore year I started getting a little bit more into skateboarding.

Growing up, I would have to say I loved ‘Peter Pan’ because I was fascinated by Captain Hook I was fascinated by Hans Conried, who was an actor on screen and also a theatrical and television actor.

My favorite singer is Lauryn Hill – all time, hands down. She was my biggest inspiration growing up.

The story that I wanna tell is pretty much about the way I grew up. Being bi-racial, growing up in a big city and being an artist.

Growing up, I was always prancing around and singing… and I just never really stopped.

To be honest, when I was growing up – I think it’s because of Kate Winslet and ‘Titanic’ – I always wanted to do period.

For girls growing up, sometimes I think they get the wrong idea for what women should look like.

Conway Twitty was always our local hero while I was growing up. He had a series of good bands. I wanted to sit in, if Conway would let me. And he did a couple of times.

Growing up, I lived a moderate lifestyle with my family.

Growing up, I idolised Madhuri Dixit. She’s my favourite actress, and I used to pretend I was her all the time.

Well, when I was growing up it was Ozzie and Harriet on TV – nobody’s parents were like that.

Growing up in Hollywood it seemed like every kid was the child of some star. We had no idea that other people would think we were special, because there was no other lifestyle to compare it to.

I was a nerd growing up, and I’m a little antisocial and awkward.

When I was growing up I always wanted to be a waitress. My sister opened a restaurant in Mississippi, and I went down there and was a waitress for a few days. Let me tell you, I got it out of my system.

Growing up, I never imagined I would be an actor.

Being Irish was a big thing for me, particularly growing up in Chicago.

To me, growing up in South Wales, a pair of Diesel jeans were the thing to have – if you could afford them.

Growing up, I’d watch ‘Rambo’ or ‘Commando,’ and so many action heroes were these huge guys with six-pack abs. It almost became a novelty.

When I was growing up, we had a widow living next door to us. So the habit was that if we went to the grocery store, we called her first. If we cut our yard, we cut her yard, no questions asked.

It was just you had to be strong, and if you weren’t strong you’re a victim and you’re not going to make it. That was the reality when I was growing up.

My mom was a big feminist, and when I was growing up, I wasn’t allowed to have typical girl toys: she did not let me have dolls. Barbies were banned in our household. She read feminist books to me my mom was a major feminist.

Growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, science fiction and especially fantasy had such a stigma attached to them. I felt so punished and exiled for being devoted to these things.

I’m Christian. Growing up in Ethiopia, it’s half-Christian and half-Muslim. You grow up with Muslim kids. I’m very much aware of their religion.

Growing up, I was taught a man’s word is his bond.

It’s quite interesting that in my growing up I had several influences. We had gospel music on campus. R&B music was, of course, the community, and radio was country music. So I can kind of see where all the influences came from.

By growing up in Alabama, I had a melting pot of the whole pie: R&B, gospel, country.

My mother loved Gene Wilder when I was growing up, so I used to watch all his movies with her. I just adore him.

Growing up, I didn’t know anything about money other than we didn’t have any.

I was fascinated by fairies when I was growing up, and I wanted to see one dreadfully.

Growing up, the dream was to be on Broadway. I always loved theater.

When I was growing up and watching ‘The Sweeney,’ the notion of police officers being an inch away from the villains that they’re chasing was commonplace.

I have created a capsule collection for Genetic inspired by memories of growing up in LA. Denim has always been my go-to, especially during my modelling days. I discovered Genetic Denim about five years ago – they are so comfy, you could almost be wearing your pyjamas.

I don’t have too much spare time, but I try to play games as much as possible. I played a little growing up, but I never played any tennis games before.

I talked to Marvel about ‘Thor’ at one point, but I didn’t want to do Thor. It wasn’t something I read growing up, really it wasn’t one of the books I loved.

I started golfing at a young age, and growing up with two older brothers, it made me mature a lot younger.

Growing up I always used to shop in Oxfam. I’d find things for 50p and then take them home, cut them up and make them into something new.

When I was growing up, particularly during puberty in my teen years, I was so miserable because I elicited so much teasing and meanness from my teenage cohorts.

Everybody either wanted to take care of me or push me around, you know? I was teased a lot, sure I was, of course. Fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, everybody was taking their spurts except me. I was not growing up.

I loved theatre and film when I was growing up in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. My mum’s a reflexologist and my dad’s a corporate financier.

I was the typical little sister who wanted to be just like her older brother. When I was growing up, my brother wrote phenomenal stories, so I wanted to write them, too.

No, ‘Point Break’ for me – growing up on the beaches of Sydney as a surfer, it was kind of the movie that we watched every week. For me to be Johnny Utah, I’m beside myself.

Maybe there’s less oppression growing up in a small village, and fewer rules, and less danger.

When I was growing up, there actually wasn’t a lot of YA literature as it exists today. Most of the YA that I read was from the ’60s and ’70s, older than me.

I was a tomboy growing up, and an athlete.

I danced growing up. I had two friends of mine that, actually, one of them wound up dancing with Alvin Ailey.

Growing up, I knew you were supposed to have a profession – and something better than being a shopkeeper, which is what my parents were.

When I was growing up, hand washing was a ritual, but now it’s a necessity. A child dies every 15 seconds from preventable causes, which has got to stop.

From my side, there was no acceptance to this fact that I am any less than anyone around me. So there was a certain discomfort that I felt growing up that I am not seen as I want to be seen as.

I was addicted to the original ‘Star Trek’ when I was growing up, because of my dad. We grew up in St. Helens, Oregon and we weren’t allowed to watch a lot of TV.

I’m very comfortable as a singer. In fact, I think it’s more – I identified my self-esteem, my self more in those ways when I was growing up. I really – it was kind of my calling card as a kid.

I came from a different mind-set growing up, and my mind has changed.

When I was growing up, I didn’t have a hometown hero.

You start singing by singing what you hear. So everyone, when they first start singing, they naturally are singing like whatever they’re hearing, because that’s the only way you learned how to sing. So when I was growing up on Lauryn Hill, when I started singing her songs, I literally trained my voice to be able to do runs.

I grew six, seven inches in junior year of high school, so I played guard my whole life growing up. So I think there’s where I got my skill set from.

Growing up, Michael Jordan was my Olympic hero.

Growing up in Singapore, I wasn’t allowed to visit China. So when I was finally able to go there after the country began opening up to tourism in the 1990s, I found it to be utterly astounding.

I’m terrified of being poor, I always have been. It’s growing up as a Methodist. I’ll spend that bit of extra money to get a better seat on a train sometimes, because it’s quieter and calmer, but I refuse to spend money on clothes.

For kids growing up now, there’s no difference watching ‘Avatar’ on an iPad or watching YouTube on TV or watching ‘Game of Thrones’ on their computer. It’s all content. It’s just story.

Growing up, my ideals were Barbra Streisand, Cher, and my mom.

Growing up, I was always chubby. My girlfriends were always running around in two-pieces, and I never felt comfortable to do that.

Growing up, I cooked in the house, and when I cooked, everyone would sit down and eat, and it was just kind of the way I connected with my family.

Can I jump over two or three guys like I used to? No. Am I as fast as I used to be? No, but I still have the fundamentals and smarts. That’s what enables me to still be a dominant player. As a kid growing up, I never skipped steps. I always worked on fundamentals because I know athleticism is fleeting.

My biggest influence growing up was Avicii, who put me onto creating the sorts of melodies that feature throughout my songs today.

I have spent much of my life where the boys are, first as a tomboy and then on Wall Street. Growing up, I loved every and any sport. I was frustrated by girls who didn’t, so I spent most of my afternoons with the boys.

When I was growing up, my stepmother’s sister was the chief detective in one of the adjoining towns, so she piqued my interest in crime.

From the spiritual came the blues, gospel, and rhythm-and-blues. I heard all of that music growing up, and that has influenced how I approached classical music. I’m sure of it.

When I was growing up I loved reading historical fiction, but too often it was about males or, if it was about females, they were girls who were going to grow up to be famous like Betsy Ross, Clara Barton, or Harriet Tubman. No one ever wrote about plain, normal, everyday girls.

A huge thing for me growing up was going to see my favorite bands and feeling like, ‘Okay, cool, they proved themselves and did things in a special way.’ That’s the most important thing.

When I was growing up listening to music, it was 2004, when The Starting Line and Finch and The Used were kind of my favorite bands.

There weren’t a lot of action roles growing up – there were a few, maybe, like Wonder Woman, but then it wasn’t real action.

I’m kind of a dirty guy, a little Bill Laimbeer-ish. Those are the guys I used to watch growing up. I used to watch Karl Malone now I watch Boozer and Elton Brand and try to emulate those guys as much as possible because those guys are about the same size as me.

When I was growing up there was a product made by Sony called the Sony Walkman – a rage, everyone had to have one. Well, you don’t hear about the Walkman anymore.

I’m a huge fan of Canadian rock-and-roll. When I was growing up, Rush came out with a record called Hemispheres, and I must have listened to that record for two years straight. Even when I was asleep I had it on. So, yeah, whenever I hear a Rush tune, the first thing I think of is Toronto.

I think I felt like a regular kid. Growing up in New York, I never felt I was a big deal.

I loved growing up and going to haunted houses and being scared. I loved watching ‘The Exorcist,’ ‘Candyman’ and all sorts of scary movies.

Growing up in Vermont, no matter what I did, I didn’t get much recognition.

Growing up, my imagined life as a musician was something along the lines of me lounging in a Learjet en route to a swelling outdoor amphitheatre on a dazzling summer’s eve.

I was tossed all over the place growing up, which I guess prepared me for the music business, but the one thing that has always been there, that has never ever left me, has been country music.

I used to get made fun of a lot for being a male dancer, especially growing up in Boston. Kids are terrible, they don’t realize how heavy words can be.

I’m pretty shy when I go home because I was pretty shy growing up, and I think I go back to that person.

I’ve never been a fearful person. When I was growing up, I wanted to be an actress, a writer, and a musician and I never really processed that those are the three hardest jobs – I just never even processed it.

I grew up as a very sarcastic person. I was always the class clown, and to date girls, I had to be really funny. I was really skinny growing up. I was so thin, I had to run around in the shower to get wet. That kind of thin. So I always had to rely on humor and sarcasm.

I used to live on a reserve, but I went back and forth between my reserve and Ottawa where my father lived, so I kind of had a double life growing up.

While growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, I dreamed of becoming many things: an archaeologist, an ambassador, an actor, an author.

When I was growing up, there were times I had to compete against boys in tae kwon do, and I’d show them right away that I wasn’t someone to mess with.

I was a bit of an introvert growing up, and I tended to do better in math and science at school, so I went with it.

The first thing I think of when I hear the name of Lucille Ball is a Hollywood legend. I have fond memories of growing up at her house, but she was a different person off the set than she was on the set.

I had a ton of animals I had a goat growing up, a bunch of rabbits, a vegetable garden.

Growing up, my mom would watch ‘Notting Hill’ a lot. She loves Hugh Grant.

I’m into Incubus. Growing up, I was a huge Taking Back Sunday fan. I’m still a fan, but I don’t listen as much as I used to. When I was 13 or 14, I started getting into emo-pop-rock, so that influenced me. I also love Drake… I have a pretty diverse collection.

When I was growing up, Mandela’s name was synonymous with terror. We were scared of him. You couldn’t see any photos of him. A photo of him could have gotten you in jail.

I didn’t have a father when I was growing up, and I vowed to be there with my kids.

Of course there’s some things that I would have liked to have… none of my friends growing up had their father in the house. None of ’em. We had uncles and stuff like that, but nobody had a father in the house, none of my friends.

I’ve had many idols growing up. The inclination for idol worship comes naturally to me. Or it did, anyway. I think I’ve gotten over it. It came as naturally to me as wanting to act.

I was a hockey player growing up. Being a big guy and being imposing, I had to use my size to protect my teammates.

I’m not really big on video games at all, I played a lot at the arcade as a kid. I didn’t have a system growing up at my house.

Growing up, I didn’t feel cool I didn’t fit into any crowd.

I grew up in the north woods of Canada. You had to know certain things about survival. Wilderness survival courses weren’t very formalized when I was growing up, but I was taught certain things about what to do if I got lost in the woods.

My public is growing up just as I am. After all, I’m not 19 anymore and if I stick with the sex bit, who will be paying to see me when I’m 50?

Much protective self-criticism stems from growing up around people who wouldn’t or couldn’t love you, and it’s likely they still can’t or won’t. In general, however, the more you let go of the tedious delusion of your own unattractiveness, the easier it will be for others to connect with you, and the more accepted you’ll feel.

I know what it’s like to be growing up, called ‘deaf and mute’ and ‘deaf and dumb.’ They’re words that are very degrading and demeaning to people who are deaf and hard of hearing. It’s almost… it’s almost libelous, if you want to say that.

I hated myself for so many reasons, and I thought so many things were my fault that happened to me growing up.

As a lad growing up in the Fifties and Sixties, I played both Gaelic football and soccer and loved them both.

Our kids are growing up with more privilege than we had that’s true for most of my friends in L.A. I don’t know any actor who grew up with any particular privilege, so everyone wrestles with this. And I think, a lot of times, it’s about being patient with your kids.

Growing up, I decided, a long time ago, I wouldn’t accept any manmade differences between human beings, differences made at somebody else’s insistence or someone else’s whim or convenience.

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.

When I’m not in the booth, I’m one of the most laid-back guys. But growing up, I liked DMX, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and T.I. – dudes that went all out on the track. My first songs were energetic because I liked their energy.

Mom cooked a lot of turkey when I was growing up. Turkey meatloaf, turkey burgers, ground turkey shepherd’s pie – my childhood was the Bubba Gump of turkey. You’d think I would be sick of it, but when I find gems like Gwyneth Paltrow’s turkey meatball recipe, it’s as though the fowl is no longer foul to me.

Growing up, there was only classical music on BBC Radio. We had to listen to the American Forces Network in Germany, which played pop songs, or the pirate radio boats off the coast.

I had all the usual ambition growing up. I wanted to be a writer, a musician, a hockey player. I wanted to do something that wasn’t nine to five. Acting was the first thing I tried that clicked.

I actually wasn’t really the class clown growing up. The class clown was always the mean guy who walked up and was like, ‘You’re fat. You’re gay. I’m outta here!’ I was always more kind of awkward and introspective.

I had a really bad temper, when I was growing up. Sport helped me channel that temper into more positive acts.

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.

Growing up in Connecticut, all the Colonial houses looked alike. In Los Angeles, the diversity is so extreme, it’s baffling.

When I was growing up, I was the most pretentious person I have ever met. I only read obscure books and watched obscure movies and only listened to obscure music.

When I was growing up, I was told you could be anything you want to be, but I didn’t really believe that because you couldn’t be president. Like, I knew that we never had a black president.

I know someone from growing up who is in jail right now for the rest of his life, but he was one of the sweetest people I ever knew.

When I was growing up, in the ’80s and ’90s, I just never really saw myself reflected in the things that I had a liking for. It makes a difference.

I’m excited about ‘Luke Cage’ with Michael Colter, who plays Luke Cage. I play the villain, Cottonmouth. It takes place in Harlem. It’ll just be amazing for people to get to see an African-American superhero, which there weren’t any when I was growing up.

As a kid, my dad would take me to see indie films when I would visit him in New York. Films that I just wouldn’t see growing up in the Bay Area.

Growing up in the public spotlight and having insecurities like every other girl, I really know what it’s like to feel self-conscious.

I don’t think I had the aspiration to be a star growing up. I loved Madonna and Bette Midler, and I had my karaoke machine and would sing their songs.

Most of the movies I saw growing up were viewed as totally disposable, fine for quick consumption, but they have survived 50 years and are still growing.

My parents were pretty lenient with me. But, they gave me morality while I was growing up. They taught me the difference between right and wrong.

I don’t want there to be this separation between the rich and poor. I may be part of the three percent because I’ve been fortunate and done well for myself, but I will never forget about the 97 percent. That was me growing up. I was so poor I dreamt about being just ‘regular poor,’ not ‘poor, poor.’

Growing up in Oakland, we did things like white t-shirt, blue jeans and Nikes. That was my get down, how I was going to rock. And if you look at me right now, I’m pretty much black tee, blue jeans and some sneakers.

Growing up, people are like, ‘Mary, we’ll see you at the Grammys.’ You’re like, ‘I’ll be at the Grammys.’ Then, you’re actually at the Grammys! That actually is happening it’s not just something people are saying because they like your music. It’s real!

When I was a kid, I hated everything. I was really skinny, and I’d have a milkshake with an egg in it. Growing up, I ate, like, five different foods. I was not an adventurous eater. But as soon as I left home, that all changed and from that point on, I’ve been a pretty enthusiastic eater of new and strange food.

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.

We definitely weren’t poor growing up, but we weren’t rich.

I was a bit of a troubled kid growing up, let’s put it that way. I didn’t take pleasure in hard work.

My favorite actor was, is, Michael Keaton. Certainly growing up, in the movie ‘Night Shift’ he did something brand new that I hadn’t seen before that we all steal from now. And then it was in 1987 he did the movie ‘Clean and Sober’ and ‘Beetlejuice’ in the same year, and that was when I said, ‘Wow, that’s what I want to do.’

I have a daughter, and fairies meant a lot to her growing up.

If a dad does his job, we don’t need prisons, we don’t need jails. That’s what I saw growing up.

Growing up, I was such a picky eater. I’m finally starting to expand.

I used to have acne when I was a kid growing up. You can imagine how serious that was in making you feel bad. And I had skinny bow legs. I mean, as a kid growing up, I was an insecure fella.

Growing up in Pakistan in the 1980s, I lived in the shadow of a tyrannical state.

I think I’ve always been drawn to the second person. When I was growing up and playing with my friends, the usual way we interacted with imaginary worlds was as characters: a bench was ‘your’ boat, leaves on a lawn were the fins of sharks out to get ‘you.’

I have a lot of growing up to do, or a lot of growing down. I think that’s probably more appropriate.

I loved the time I got to spend in Denver. My boys, Arin and Ryan, were growing up. I got to spend time with them without being pried upon. There was no public scrutiny. I was free and could take them to the supermarket or to the park without being noticed or looked at.

I don’t really have an issue with showing certain parts of my body. I’d rather not, but it’s not a big deal. Growing up in Sweden, it’s natural over there.

Growing up, I saw the world as an inspiring place full of interesting people.

I’ve become a lot more relaxed about my career, but maybe that’s a part of growing up. I realise there are things I hold dear and value, aside from professional achievements.

I watched a ton of cartoons growing up, but I don’t remember specifically what networks they were on, I’ll be honest. But I did like cartoons as a kid.

Growing up, I mostly read comic books and sci-fi. Then I discovered the book ‘Jane Eyre’ by Jane Austen. It introduced me to the world of romance, which I have since never left. Also, the world of the first-person narrative.

Since my father is a musician as well, he taught me growing up that if you can play jazz, you can learn all instruments and write on them. He wanted me to be a songwriter that can do anything in any genre. I’m all about doing every genre.

I wasn’t attractive when I was growing up, and I don’t think I am now.

I read a lot of the ‘Pern books’ growing up – basically up through ‘All the Weyrs of Pern,’ maybe a couple after that. As far as formative dragon influences are concerned, she’s probably one of the top ones I know I read other fantasy novels that had them, but none particularly stick in mind.

Growing up, I was in all the musicals and everything… I’d come home from school and bash out a few Whitney Houston songs.

Growing up, I was always in my high school musicals and everything, but I kind of stopped doing all that when I finished school and acting became my main priority.

I watched a lot of old television growing up – a lot of Nick at Nite. I watched ‘Rhoda’, ‘Mary Tyler Moore’, and ‘I Love Lucy.’ Growing up, I loved ‘My So Called Life’ and was devastated when that went off the air.

Growing up, I was so shy, but it was weird because I was the complete opposite on stage. I was just free to be myself.

I can read music, but I have no technique, and singing was never an option even though I sang a lot growing up.

Growing up, I always wanted a bedroom of my own.

We all know from growing up with TV that John Wells shows are usually very large ensembles with amazingly written characters. He tends to redefine the way stories are told in a specific genre, whether it’s ‘China Beach,’ ‘The West Wing,’ or ‘E.R.’

My absolute favorite growing up was ‘Super Friends.’ The assemblage of so many mighty heroes in one place was, to me, mind-blowing. It was Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, and then sometimes Hawkman and some other, lesser heroes.

I loved growing up in Washington, but I have been a diehard, 100 percent 49ers fan since I was 11.

Like most kids growing up, I had a very wide interest. I was interested in everything. I tried to take advantage of everything, from the sciences to music to writing to literature.

One of the reasons I’m an actor is because I was no physical specimen as a child. I wasn’t athletic and didn’t have any prowess in that regard. Growing up in Kentucky, most little boys were trying to get into sports, and it was very competitive, so that was not to be. But I did want to do something.

I’ve known a lot of religious people. My mother is very religious, but she also is very private about it. When I was growing up, she never went to church. She just prayed and read her Bible and kept it to herself. I’m not from a background of flamboyant believers. It’s much more a personal issue.

I know this’ll sound obnoxious, but acting was very much an accident for me. I didn’t have, like, posters of Marlon Brando in my bedroom when I was growing up.

I have nice muscle tone in my arms. I can’t really take credit for it, though – all the members of my family do. A lot of arm wrestling happened in our family growing up!

Growing up in the south, N.Y.C. always seemed like a destination to visit but not to live in.

I’ve always enjoyed the teen angst thing. I had a lot of teen angst as I was growing up, so I think I have a lot to say about it through characters before I have to move on.

I feel like plenty of people have normal-seeming families that, as they’re growing up, feel awful. I’d rather have one that looks weird from the outside but felt really normal.

And a lot of the artists and people that we hired were fans of Transformers growing up, so having so many fans working on my crew really kept me on point.

Growing up, I loved magic, I loved acting, I loved comedy. I really didn’t know what direction I was going. I was trying a whole bunch of stuff.

I come from a big family of storytellers and, growing up, I liked hearing about the years before I was born.

The kids growing up in the apartheid era were so restricted and angry – if they spoke out against it, they were thrown in jail.

Steven Spielberg was my idol growing up. I knew that all of his movies have a very specific message and point of view, and the always are really epic.

When I was growing up, it was the guys who were hardest at school who got the prettiest girls. It’s a status thing.

Growing up, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo were the players I looked up to – and Carlos Tevez when he was at the club.

I’ve always felt this, from when I was growing up to now with my son Riley. We don’t let them be little. I was not a normal kid, but I had a sense of innocence far longer than we let kids.

I wouldn’t be where I am, if not for Jamaica. My formative years were here. I wouldn’t have the confidence that I have if I wasn’t born here, because growing up here I knew I could become anybody I wanted to become. There was no ceiling on top of me.

I think everybody’s always attracted to both sexes. I mean, I think that women are very attractive. I’ve kissed girls, but everybody experiments. It’s part of growing up.

I’m a first-generation American, so I had friends from several cultures while growing up, including Indian and Iranian friends.

When you grow up on film, people sometimes have difficulties accepting the fact that you are growing up. They always imagine you younger.

I never had any hang-ups about sex. As for being sexually repressed, nothing could be further from the truth. There are more hang-ups now than ever there were when I was growing up.

Growing up, I watched shows such as ‘Blackadder’ and ‘Monty Python’ with my parents.

Growing up, I didn’t really like folk music – I wasn’t a fan of Bob Dylan. I grew up mostly listening to rap and hip-hop it was this new form of music.

When I was growing up, I lived in a neighborhood that was largely Latino and I thought I was Latino!

I’ve always been sort of drawn to storytelling, and I was always very playful growing up.

My parents lived, breathed, ate and slept theatre. Emotions were right on the surface. Growing up, the unreal had as much importance as the real.

I trained in Toronto with a private acting teacher, who was wonderful, for years growing up.

Growing up, I thought I was going to be Madonna. I wanted to be a pop star. I wanted to dance and sing.

My dad was a big runner. Growing up, I watched him do half marathons, and he was always running six or seven miles.

As a kid growing up, I wanted the Allen Iverson shoes that came out, the Questions. My dad got them for me, so I was excited about that.

Growing up, I was like any Aussie kid – you know we love our sport – that was my favourite subject at school. That is a subject, right?

Growing up in the middle of nowhere, there was a lot of twangy music around, but it didn’t really connect with me then.

One of my biggest inspirations growing up was Whitney Houston, so I was devastated to hear about her passing. I’m from East Orange, New Jersey, and started singing at New Hope Baptist Church, so she was like my fellow Jersey girl.

I liked Roy Jones, Sugar Ray Leonard, Ali… those were the guys I was looking at growing up.

Growing up as an amateur, I wasn’t much of a power puncher. I was more of a speed guy.

Back when I was growing up, getting caught with a copy of ‘Creepy,’ ‘Eerie’ or ‘Vampirella’ was almost as bad as your parents finding out you were reading ‘Playboy.’

When you’re growing up, you realize you’ve got a lot of heavy things on your shoulders.

I’m not sure why I still think of myself as 28 – maybe that’s the point where you start growing up, and then you just feel the same for evermore.

When I was growing up there, North Gulfport was referred to as ‘Little Vietnam’ because of the perception of crime and depravity within its borders – as if its denizens were simply a congregation of the downtrodden.

I had spindly little ankles, and growing up in Canada, I couldn’t skate. I was no good at any sports so was very much a pariah through those adolescent years.

I’m not scared of growing up, but it just happens, doesn’t it?

As you’re growing up, it’s odd, because directors don’t expect you to grow up. They think you’ll be young forever, but as an actor, there is an awkward period when you’re too young for old or too old for young, and it can be an odd time.

When I was growing up, yearning with my pals to be a track star, one of our heroes was Bruce Jenner. He won a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics in the decathlon, and he adorned our Wheaties boxes. We all wanted to be Bruce Jenner.

When I was growing up, I was lucky to benefit from a first class education.

I’m so proud to be a Latina. Growing up and being Latina and growing up with my father and getting to do a lot of the Hispanic traditions, I loved it.

Oh I love horror movies, yeah. I think my favorite movie growing up was ‘The Omen.’ I actually wanted to be that little kid.

Growing up, I was always involved in the deaf community.

Even though you’re growing up, you should never stop having fun.

But I never, never thought of the ministry nor did – of course, television when I was growing up, there was no television. So I didn’t know anything about it.

You can imagine me as a kid growing up in redneck Texas with ballet shoes, tucking the violin under my arm. I had to fight my way up.

My childhood growing up in that part of Glasgow always sounds like some kind of sub-Catherine Cookson novel of earthy working-class immigrant life, which to some extent it was, but it wasn’t really as colourful that.

I never was a big comic book fan. Obviously I’d heard them growing up from my friends who did read them, but I never was a big comic book reader.

When I was a kid growing up, you maybe secretly wanted to be an actor, but you never said.

When I was growing up in Ossining, N.Y., playing pool with the guys, the thought that any one of us might become an actor was as far-fetched as being knighted by the queen of England.

As I learned from growing up, you don’t mess with your grandmother.

I loved American filmmakers when I was growing up. I didn’t get to film school or anything. I was a very bad student. I just devoured film, but there was a point in my teens when I started to run a little film society.

My grandmother was not a U.S. citizen. Growing up along the border, you see the real human side of immigration – not the picture often drawn by politicians far removed from the border.

I’m South American, and growing up in New York, I had the total stereotypical way of thinking of what Texas was about. I’m like, Texas. Big. Cows. Cowboys. Cowboy hats and cowboy boots. And barbeque.

You have to remember that when I met Elvis, you know, it wasn’t the fanfare that it is today or even when he was here in the states and I was in Germany growing up.

When I was growing up, I never felt that I belonged anywhere because we never lived in a house for more than three months. That’s all I knew, and that’s why I don’t really belong anywhere.

A lot of times, I faced bullies – or the ‘big dogs’ at school. What I wanted ‘Red Rising’ to be is not necessarily an indictment on bullies, but it reflects my experiences and attitudes that I had with bullies growing up.

I didn’t have bands that I was playing with growing up, so I learned to try to adapt and play these songs that were guitar songs on the piano, and sing them.

When I was growing up, ‘Anna Karenina’ was one of my favourite books.

Growing up, I was not told that there were women’s areas of preoccupation or male ones.

In the early 2000s, I was going through a lot. I didn’t have my head screwed on right. Where I was at as a man, I was still growing up.

I remember, growing up, if something big – God forbid – happened, the first jokes you heard on the subject came out of Jersey.

I sang in church, but growing up in the neighborhood, music was more of an expression of relief or entertainment.

When I was growing up, there were so many musicals you could watch. I like the fantasy of musicals and I love music.

Lets be clear, Dolly Parton is a rapper. Somewhere before all the country, I don’t know what happens up there in the mountains when you’re growing up, but she has been spitting rhymes for a very long time – 50 years I’d say.

I did keep detailed journals from about fifth grade on, and every so often as I was growing up, I would re-read them and reflect on the previous years of my life.

I have an unusual hobby: I collect pictures of people I don’t know. It started when I was a kid growing up in South Florida, the land of junk stores, garage sales, and flea markets, as a kind of coping mechanism.

And you know when I was growing up, I knew I wanted to have kids, but I knew I didn’t want to do it alone. Then once I was 41, 42, I had to accept that I probably wouldn’t have kids unless I decided to adopt later on, but even then it would be with a partner.

Growing up, we didn’t have anything. My mum wasn’t well, so I was in three care homes then foster homes before me and my little brother went back to her. I was passed from pillar to post.

I am occasionally enraptured by Western landscape. But I don’t identify that state of mind as having to do with my own origins, having grown up in the West, although I certainly crisscrossed Nevada countless times growing up, and then as a young adult, in cars and on motorcycles.

When anyone talks about lucha libre and that style of wrestling, the first person they think of is Mil Mascaras. The other man the true wrestling fan will think of is El Santo. These were the names that came to me when I was growing up.

My uncle inspired me, and it was because of him that I become a wrestler, but besides him, the one Superstar that really caught my attention growing up as a kid was ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage.

I remember, growing up, you didn’t wear an England shirt. The English flag was very much – and still is, to some extent – associated with the far-right movements of the 1980s that I grew up around.

Usually, when I liked athletes growing up, it was because they could hit a ball very far or they can throw a ball very fast. They can shoot a jumper, or they can dunk the ball.

I loved cinema while growing up and, for the longest time, wanted to be a director.

When I was growing up, you’d read about actors, and they’d never tell you their age and how much they made a year as part of their definition.

Having loved the Stones all the time I was growing up, I wasn’t about to see them go and split up. It got very close to it in the 80s, when Mick thought that Keith hated him and vice versa.

When I was growing up, there were just the three channels, so as a nation we all sat down to the same meal at the end of the day. Now there’s been this explosion.

Growing up in Britain, Michael Caine has always been such an icon. Chatting with him, I know I came across as the biggest doofus. Literally, I was, like, bowing to him.

Tango was very popular in Panama at the time when I was growing up. In the Fifties in Panama, the radio stations played all types of music.

Growing up in England, you’re sort of spoiled, in a way. You sort of take it for granted that within a half-hour’s drive, you could be walking around a stately home from the 1700s. It’s not very hard to do – in California, you’ve got to take a flight!

I couldn’t believe I was working with Michael Jackson. I thought, growing up as a kid, I thought Michael was a cartoon.

I played piano growing up. I played classical piano since I was 5, and I sang in choirs, and I sang in plays and musicals.

Girls, to me, growing up were very, very petty and didn’t want me to succeed and didn’t want the best for me.

When I was growing up my favorite show was ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’, and I loved all the stuff that Norman Lear did.

Well, I’m from Indiana. So to me when I was a little kid growing up, Cincinnati was the glamorous New York of it all.

When I was growing up, I was regularly involved in local activities such as food collections, food kitchens, and other initiatives.

Growing up, I had the weird fantasy list: I wanted to be Alice Cooper, Steven Spielberg, and Stan Lee. You have to have almost psychotic drive, because you’re going to have years of failure.

Streetwear for me is what I was raised wearing in London, and my style influences growing up were always people who wore streetwear.

Everything we do in our growing up has been done before. But it needs recognition and validation each time for each one of us – public, private, and secret.

When I was growing up, I was eating fast food every day. I’d drink soda non-stop, candy, just everything. It was horrible. My go-to was McDonald’s, for sure.

I never was that boy who loved gangster films, but when I was growing up, I was obsessed with the detective Dick Tracy. It was one of my favourite movies as a kid, and he really inspired me. I would have loved to be part of that golden age of Hollywood in the 1940s. It made me want to become an actor.

I’m from Canada, and I think, like everyone growing up anywhere else in the world, you are very aware of America – it sort of looms large in its legend, and so did Detroit.

I like to work out. I work out hard when I get to it, but it’s so sporadic, I’m not sure it counts at all! I eat pretty much anything, but I eat high-quality food. There was never a packet of chips or box of candy in my house when I was growing up. Ever.

My love, growing up on the Prairies, was country music.

I was a really big fan of cartoons growing up, and I loved to read too much into them most of the time.

When I was growing up in the Philippines, the story that was read to me most was Pinocchio.

Growing up in the entertainment industry, I’ve had a lot of people tell me I’m not good enough.

My initial introduction to him was – this is a funny story… My Aunt Marian, my entire life growing up, told me that I looked like Charlie Chaplin. That didn’t really resonate with me when I was younger – I hadn’t seen a lot of his films.

My access to music when I was growing up was through pirate radio, you know, transistor radio under the pillow, listening to one more and then ‘just one more’ until your favourite track comes on.

The music I heard growing up, since there was no TV or cinema or record covers, I didn’t know if it was black, white, hip, square, male, female… whatever. I’d hear melodies and things and got intrigued on that level.

Growing up, I loved Bill Cosby.

When I was growing up, the exam system didn’t allow you to write fiction, so you never did.

I lived with my auntie and my cousin when I was growing up, and they always wore black, and I thought it was quite chic. It wasn’t a goth or a social group sort of thing.

I probably felt most out of place as a young kid growing up in Sri Lanka. My mental world was somewhere else, partly because of reading and daydreaming.

When I was growing up, I don’t think I knew any other child who had been out of Sri Lanka.

Commonwealth’ is not a word I ever used growing up in Colombo. There, in the late 1950s, it would have meant little more than New Zealand lamb and Anchor butter at the cold stores.

It’s properly scary playing a leading man. Growing up, I always wanted to be a character actor.

As a kid growing up in the back streets of Dublin I used to pretend I was playing in the World Cup with my mates out on the streets, and now I will be doing it for real.

I loved theater growing up, and my mom always took us to the touring productions that would come through town. We would go to Chicago all the time and see shows. I loved it.

When I was a kid growing up, there might be 10 shows on the air that had been on for ten seasons or eleven seasons. ‘Gunsmoke’ ran for over twenty years.

Growing up in the Bay Area, I played early on with these quartet groups who set guidelines for me. I remember the guys would all have the same clothes and shoes, like these uniforms. I was in awe.

I was the little kid growing up. I wasn’t picked on because, honestly, I was fast, so I could run away from the bullies.

Growing up, it was just me and my mom, so we would play games where we’d listen to the radio and sing harmonies to each other.

Growing up as a kid, I wanted to be a ninja. In martial arts, even though I did Chinese kung fu, I always wanted to be this secret samurai or a ninja. There’s something about ninjas that was very appealing to me as a kid. So of course, I was climbing a lot of trees and other things and getting up to mischief – good mischief.

When I played Darth Maul, it sort of came from inside. I’m not saying it was natural, but I really enjoyed it, and I think I was tapping into my childhood, growing up with ‘Star Wars.’ And I grew up with G.I. Joe as well. Same as ‘Thundercats’ and ‘Transformers’ and ‘He-Man.’ And so I think it was the inner kid in me just came out.

When you’re growing up, you want to feel part of something.

I always idolized guys like Deion Sanders, Barry Sanders, Steve Young and the entire 49ers team, really. I was a huge 49ers fan growing up.

My favorite movies growing up were things like ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ but as I got older, I really began to admire people like Steven Soderbergh.

Growing up, mostly in Montreal, I was an only child of loving parents.

I jabbered too much in class about all the Russian writers whom I admired for being, among other things, uncouth and somewhat humorously melodramatic, such as Gogol and Dostoyevsky, just as it was in my own household when I was growing up.

Bob Dylan is my idol. Everybody has that person growing up that made them see things a little differently than they did before, Dylan is that guy for me. My dad gave me the ‘Blonde on Blonde’ album on cassette tape when I was seven or eight. It took me a while to get into Dylan’s vibe, but once I did, I never looked back.

I wouldn’t know how to write a weak female character. I read so much epic fantasy growing up, where you have these sword-wielding, in-your-face warrior maidens.

I think my mom is the inspiration of me wanting to do film and TV and be an actor because she loved film so much. She loved, like, horror films and action films, so growing up, she loved watching all the Charles Bronson films and all the westerns.

I was on the set when I was five years old with Spencer Tracy. A lot of what I learned growing up in terms of artistry is very clean, very tidy, very organized.

While growing up in Birmingham around a lot of West Indian people, reggae and calypso were big influences early on but Otis Redding was the one person who made me wanna sing myself.

In the ’50s, listening to Elvis and others on the radio in Bombay – it didn’t feel alien. Noises made by a truck driver from Tupelo, Mississippi, seemed relevant to a middle-class kid growing up on the other side of the world. That has always fascinated me.

When I was growing up, we went to Musikfest every year, and I have vivid memories of the corn on the cob. I’m going for the concert, but I’m really going for the corn.

Growing up in an Italian family, we used our body to convey a message.

When I was growing up, we dressed up for church.

My growing up years, we watched ‘Happy Days,’ every night. I don’t know what was reruns and what was new.

I’m a young woman, and I’m growing up and trying to do it in a way I feel comfortable with.

I was a huge ‘Star Trek’ fan. I loved the ‘Twilight Zone’ growing up. In the future, I hope to create some thoughtful, sci-fi drama.

When I was growing up and somebody like Robert De Niro had a movie come out, it was a cultural event. Because he had such a confidence and a single mission that was so intimate.

My lyrics come from my experiences growing up in life, trying to find out and express who I am. That’s basically it. I’m not trying to be a prophet or anything like that. I’m just reflecting on life.

I hate that word, mature, but I guess I am growing up.

Growing up in Canada, I didn’t watch football much.

At 15, saying I wanted to do a reggae album after growing up in a snazzy house in Houston – it was kind of random.

As a kid growing up, I was never like, ‘I want to go to the Olympics,’ so having to pass on 2012 because I was too young didn’t bother me at all.

When I was growing up, there was no such thing as Off-Broadway. You either got your show on or you didn’t.

Over the years, I’ve lived in a variety of places, including America, but I was born and raised in the Lake District, in Cumbria. Growing up in that rural, sodden, mountainous county has shaped my brain, perhaps even my temperament.

I did a lot of theater growing up, and in college I was in the musical ‘Chicago.’

Growing up, I loved Morticia Addams and Lily Munster on one hand, and Jeannie from ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ on the other. Two completely different ends of the spectrum, kind of like me.

I was mad about the theatre growing up, really mad. We had a local theatre, the Torch, and I used to usher there. I would see the shows over and over again.

I think most of my tastes were British, as far as comedy went, when I was growing up.

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.

Sunday night was such a big night for television when I was growing up – you know, ‘The Wonderful World of Disney.’

I’m a runner from sports. I’ve been a runner, but I wasn’t a cross-country runner or anything like that. I played a lot of soccer growing up.

When I was growing up, a lot of books affected me, but I never wrote letters to the author or anything like that. I’m always mindful that there are probably a whole bunch of people reading my books like that, too.

When I was growing up in L.A. in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Michael Jackson’s was the first face on TV that looked like mine.

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, I always wanted a dog, but my parents never wanted one.

I don’t want to offend nobody, and I don’t rub anybody the wrong way. That’s a part of growing up.

Growing up, I was always really inspired by Disney, and I had a great love of everything they created. My mum was huge fan, and she used to collect stills, and so they were all around the house, and we very much grew up on the early Disney films.

I loved Superman growing up. I saw a couple of those movies in the theater, and I watched ‘Superman II’ 8000 times.

When I was growing up, the blues did seem too simple to me. I was just a muso.

Growing up, I never imagined a girl from a border town could one day become a governor.

When I was growing up, one or two girls were beautiful, but it was not an aspiration, right?

We had a small farm growing up. It was my grandfather’s farm, and we didn’t torture the animals, and we didn’t feed them stuff we wouldn’t eat.

When I was growing up watching Marilyn Monroe, I learned that you can be very beautiful, very glamorous and very vulnerable and not give up your soul just because you were a movie star.