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I think back to the old people I knew when I was growing up, and they always seemed larger than life.


Chinua Achebe

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I don't care about age very much. I think back to the old people I knew when I was growing up, a...
CHINUA ACHEBE Yet, when we talked, when we were together, she seemed so familiar. Seemed to know who I was, where ...
JULIE ANNE PETERS Money was always on my mind when I was growing up. So I was always wondering how we were going to af...
LEONARDO DICAPRIO When I was growing up, I always knew that if I ever got anything, I was going to give back as much a...
DARIUS RUCKER What I liked about American movies when I was a kid was that they're sort of larger than life an...
GUY RITCHIE When I was growing up, I don't think I knew any other child who had been out of Sri Lanka.
ROMESH GUNESEKERA I was terribly shy when I was growing up, I really wasn't confident with other people and I thin...
EMILY MORTIMER When I was in first grade, everyone made fun of my name, of course. I think it's kind of a big name ...
RIVER PHOENIX I knew from the time I was 6 or 7 that music was something I had to do. Growing up, my parents did e...
CRYSTAL BOWERSOX When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to ...
JOHN LENNON When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to ...
JOHN LENNON It's interesting when you know people on a number of levels. I knew Josie and George as patients of ...
MIKE FISCHER Everyone here has always treated me like thier daughter. It doesn't matter who it is, and it was eve...
SHANNON MILLER Growing up, my parents did everything they knew how to do to support me. My dad was always kinda my ...
CRYSTAL BOWERSOX I always knew I wanted to dance. I started ballet when I was three years old, and I just knew it was...
BIANCA MARROQUIN I like listening to old soul music. I like Sam Cooke. When I was growing up, the first things I was ...
REBECCA FERGUSON They're growing up in an environment so different than what I grew up in. I think they're beginning ...
FOREST WHITAKER I don't think what has happened to me is that different from what happens to most people. The only d...
BILLY JOEL I always wanted to be Robin Hood or John the Baptist when I was growing up.
BEAR GRYLLS It's so funny how my name has always been such a big deal. When I was growing up, my family was ...
CALISTA FLOCKHART When I was in first grade, everyone made fun of my name, of course. I think it's kind of a big n...
RIVER PHOENIX I just wanted the children to start to have normal lives back. I knew they would not get back their ...
AHMED ISSE I became very famous, as a teenager, and my name and photo were splashed in all the media. They made...
YUSUF ISLAM I think I may have to grow up without growing old. I think we're going to have to define differe...
MATTIE STEPANEK When I was growing up as a kid I was playing football or baseball or something else in the back yard...
BRIAN WELLS Coming from a farming background, I saw nothing out of the ordinary in running barefoot, although it...
ZOLA BUDD I was an only child, and Mother was always right with me all my life. I used to get very angry at he...
ELVIS PRESLEY I grew up in New York, in the Village, and I started going to Stella Adler pretty young. I was 13 or...
STEVEN STRAIT I think it's from moving around so much when I was growing up.
ALLYSON HOLLINGSWORTH Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future and time future contained in time...
, ALWAYS NOW, 1997 When I was growing up, and other people I knew were getting into trouble, I was somewhere in a deer ...
DONALD TRUMP, JR. The girls show more skin these days, but I think, generally, they behave the same way as when I was ...
CECILY VON ZIEGESAR When I was growing up, nothing unpleasant was shown in the home. And when I was in art school, the o...
PETER SAUL Yes, I felt very small. The typewriter seemed larger than a piano, I was less than a molecule. What ...
ALBERT SáNCHEZ PIñOL When I was larger, people said I was fat. Now that I've lost weight, they say I died.
LUTHER VANDROSS I grew up dancing my whole life, and I always kind of perceived that's what I would do professio...
JACOB ARTIST I have had strange animals as pets all my life. I was shy growing up, and shy people tend to interac...
YVONNE CRAIG When I was growing up I always wanted to be someone. Now I realize I should have been more specific.
LILY TOMLIN Back when I knew he was mine, only mine. Back when I knew he loved me, and only me. I miss back when...
JENNY HESTOR When I was growing up, my mother was always a friend to my siblings and me (in addition to being all...
MARLO THOMAS I watched a lot of old television growing up - a lot of Nick at Nite. I watched 'Rhoda', ...
MAMIE GUMMER Some people are embarrassed to say they came from East St. Louis, Ill., but now more people want to ...
JACKIE JOYNER-KERSEE When I was growing up, I was so fascinated by Mel Blanc and all of the different voices that he did ...
JENNY SLATE Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there -- I always suspected ...
ANDY WARHOL Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there - I always suspected t...
ANDY WARHOL I always wanted to be a zookeeper when I was growing up, and I've wound up a zookeeper! I've...
BETTY WHITE Mum and dad were very much friends, and up to life. There was no anxiety for anything when I was gro...
KATE WINSLET When I wrote to him, he was still starring in 'Third Rock,' so kids knew who he was. And I think he'...
DAVID GALE I was always cutting dialogue out when we were rehearsing, and when I produced movies, too. I felt t...
DONNA MILLS When I was growing up, I always read horror books, while my sister read romance novels.
DOROTHY ALLISON I've always gravitated towards the beats, obviously. And when I was growing up, I always loved f...
TOMMY LEE I was never the class clown or anything like that. When I was growing up and doing theatre in Seattl...
ANNA FARIS I converted to the LDS Church when I was 18-years old. I think a lot of things happened in my life t...
GARY WILKINSON I mourn my old life here. We barely scraped by, but I knew where I fit in, I knew what my place was ...
SUZANNE COLLINS I was always in love with Judy Garland, and when I was growing up, I fell in love with Leonardo DiCa...
TAMMY BLANCHARD Growing up I was told that the early bird got the worm and I would always answer back "Well the seco...
ARMANDO RODRIGUEZ JR Growing up, I was always the small guy.
WAYNE GRETZKY I knew I wanted to come back here when I had the opportunity and they expressed some interest so I w...
JASON WIEMER I knew I wanted to do music at eight years of age. I listened to a lot of Motown growing up, and it ...
CONRAD SEWELL I was interested in politics very much when I was growing up, and that's what I think I really w...
MICHAEL RIEDEL Now that I think back, I was lucky to be 12 when I found out I had diabetes. I hear about babies 6 m...
JAY LEEUWENBURG I was always cutting dialogue out when we were rehearsing, and when I produced movies, too. I felt t...
DONNA MILLS No one knew I was gay growing up but I was bullied. I was a cheerleader, fairly popular and consider...
CAT CORA I have kept a diary,
WITHNAIL AND I I knew I wanted to be an actor when I was growing up, really. So when I decided to go to university ...
HUGH DANCY I laugh at what I used to think was cool when I was growing up. In all seriousness, I thought having...
RACHEL NICHOLS I was born in Clinton, Mississippi, which had 1,500-2,500 people when I was growing up - a village.
BARRY HANNAH Growing up, I was on film sets occasionally, when my dad was acting, so I got to run around and do o...
DUNCAN JONES When I really young yet feeling very old, I offered up a lot of myself to the press; I knew it was g...
DIANE LANE I only wish I could have played in the big leagues when I was young enough to show what I could do. ...
BUCK LEONARD I think people in Montreal smoke a lot, and I used to smoke when I was 17-18, and just picked it up ...
MARIO LEMIEUX I started with golf because I saw my brothers play, I was always watching them. It was my life. Grow...
LEXI THOMPSON I knew what it was to yearn for a life so distant it seemed that it had never been anything more tha...
ALICE HOFFMAN It seemed when I missed a fairway or green, I couldn't get the ball up. The front nine is much more ...
MIKE WEIR I've always loved watches my whole life. When I was growing up, I always thought of having a gre...
JAMES MARSDEN When I was growing up, I wanted to be my half-sister Lucy. She was 14 years older than me and was im...
EMILIA FOX That was the team I always watched growing up,
ANDY ROACH Growing up, nobody I knew even knew a writer. So it was a big adventure and something that I've ...
CANDACE BUSHNELL You get to bring your own sound system when you play an arena, all the lights and visual stuff, whic...
DAN AUERBACH I knew I was gay when I was 4 years old. I don't think it's a choice for me. But for some people, th...
LINDA CZYZYK When I was younger, I played sports and went to camp. As I got older, my parents began to instill in...
KATHERINE SCHWARZENEGGER When you say you grew up in Los Angeles, a lot of people think the west side: they think the glitz a...
JULIETTE LEWIS Growing up, I would say, when we were racing go-karts back in the day, it was always our uncle. We w...
AMBER COPE I think I always sang, I always used to listen to old Bessie Smith records, and Kate Smith. And Bill...
BEA ARTHUR I belonged to Stratford Children's Theater when I was a boy growing up in Manchester. Even then,...
JOHN MAHONEY I think there's nothing wrong with being fixated on superheroes when you are 7 years old, but I ...
ALEJANDRO GONZALEZ INARRITU I think I chose wisely. When it came down to it, I knew I was a better goalkeeper than I was a bowle...
DAVID SEAMAN I think it was, my parents got me a karaoke machine when I was about 9 years old. Even before that, ...
LESLIE ODOM, JR. I loved cowboy movies when I was a kid. When I was five years old, I was already wearing a cowboy ha...
JACKIE CHAN Growing up, the way that I looked was very important to me. I was always trying to impress people, a...
MATISYAHU I think I had kind of an advantage. When I was growing up, my dad had just got out of jail and he ha...
CHRIS ISAAK I was just a big fan of tattoos always growing up, and I wanted something cool that symbolizes what ...
KEVIN DURANT I thought I was an old soul, and that I knew life, but then starting the real life, I figured I am c...
YAEL NAIM Growing up, Cincinnati was tough, bad, in your face. We're getting it back. Back to the old days.
DEVAN DOWNEY It seemed the whole world knew this person named Diana, and if the world knew her, the connection be...
DAVE EGGERS I didn't know what gay was. There was no such thing when I was growing up. I knew I had crushes ...
KEVYN AUCOIN I always felt like I was a freak when I was growing up and that there was something wrong with me be...
MADONNA CICCONE It's going to happen someday when I am doing normal things. When everything seems normal, I am going...
TOM GRIFFIN My life seemed to be a series of events and accidents. Yet when I look back, I see a pattern.
BENOîT B. MANDELBROT Growing up, I took so many cues from books. They taught me most of what I knew about what people did...
NEIL GAIMAN

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CHINUA ACHEBE I don't care about age very much.
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