Selected upbringing quotes

1. Simplicity is a great element of good breeding.

2. I wanted to be a visual artist because I grew up around a lot of painters and photographers and had a very artistic upbringing. And I fantasized about being a drug-dealer when I was a kid. I thought it would be a good opportunity; I knew that the market would be strong. Is that bizarre?

3. I project a definite innocence. A lot of that is just the way I grew up.

4. * We were constantly moving to different countries and adjusting to new things. It was such a free feeling. I'm glad I didn't have a traditional upbringing.

5. My first words was thug for life and papa pass the mack.

6. I was a countryman and a father before I was a writer on political subjects.... Born and bred up in the sweet air myself, I was resolved that [my children] should be bred up in it too.

7. I was raised around a lot of artists, musicians, photographers, painters and people that were in theatre. Just having the art-communal hippie experience as a child, there wasn't a clear line that was drawn. We celebrated creative experience and creative expression. We didn't try and curtail it and stunt any of that kind of growth.

8. Where I grew up... in Brooklyn, nobody committed suicide... you know, everyone was too unhappy.

9. My family was musical on both sides. My father's family had a famous flautist and a classical pianist. My mother won a contest to be Shirley Temple's double -- she was the diva of the family. At 8, I learned how to play guitar. I used to play songs from the '20s, '30s and '40s in the kitchen for my grandmother. After my dad was a prisoner in Cuba for two years, we moved to Texas, where I was the only Hispanic in the class. I remember hearing 'Ferry Cross the Mersey,' by Gerry and the Pacemakers, and thinking, 'that had bongos and maracas -- that was really a bolero.' And the Beathles song, 'Till There was You' . . . also Latin. I wrote poetry, which got me into lyrics. Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Elton John pulled me into pop. I started singing with a band -- just for fun -- when I 17. And pretty soon, I was thinking I could sing pop in English as well as Spanish. And as you know, we did that and we broke through. But we waited until 1993 to release 'Mi Tierra' -- we wanted my fans to be rady for the traditional Cuban music. And then we kept adding: more Cuban influences, more Latin America. And, underneath it all, African drums and rhythm. The concept of '90 Millas' starts with the songs of the '40s. We invited 25 masters of Latin music -- giants on the cutting edge of creativity, musicians who pushed it out to the world, young Cuban artists and Puerto Ricans who are huge -- so we could blend cultures and generations. So it is like coming home, but not exactly to the old Cuba.

10. Happy he With such a mother! faith in womankind Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high Comes easy to him.

11. This is to explain just how your mom turned out to be the kind of hairpin she is.

12. I am the only child of parents who weighed, measured, and priced everything; for whom what could not be weighed, measured, and priced, had no existence.

13. Education is of far greater importance than heredity in forming character.

14. [I] grew up in this city [Miami], and my music is a blend of two cultures. In the beginning it was heavily Cuban. At this point it's [from] all over . . .

15. I first drew in New England's air, and from her hardy breast Sucked in the tyrant-hating milk that will not let me rest.

16. McLeavy: Where did I go wrong? His upbringing was faultless. Did you lead him astray? Dennis: I was innocent till I met him. Hal: You met me when you were three days old.

17. Women should be treated with respect. Growing up around them all my life, I've learned that important factor.

18. All parents bring up their children with certain values. And it's not surprising that Shahrukh's parents never laid down any rules. 'That's also why none were broken. My mom used to talk about hard work, honesy and heartfelt feelings. But one thing they taught me was, 'If you like doing something, go ahead and do it'. I never feel guilty about anything I do.

19. Better were it to be unborn than ill-bred.

20. My Great-grandfather was a Congregational Minister and my Mother was a Bible scholar, and I was brought up on the Bible, that the story of the Bible was conflict between the kings who had power, and the prophets who preached righteousness. And I was taught to believe in the prophets, got me into a lot of trouble. And my Dad said to me when I was young, 'Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone, Dare to have a purpose firm, Dare to let it (be) known.'

21. Actually, I'm a human, but I was raised by elves.

22. I come from a world of conservative Christian thought. I've absorbed Christianity with my mother's milk. So it must be obvious that certain... archetypes, aren't they called? - stick in one's mind, and that certain lines, certain courses of events, certain ways of behaving, become adequate symbols for what goes on in the Christian system of ideas. ... I keep myself supplied with my own angels and demons...

23. He got his mean streak from the gutter Got his kindness from God

24. Need to take me in heaven and understand I was a G'/Did the best I could, raised in insanity

25. Was born rough and rugged, addressin the mad public/My attitude was, 'Fuck it,' cause motherfuckers love it

26. Machiavelli was my tutor Donald Goines, my father figure/Momma sent me to go play with the drug dealers

27. sincerely yours/I'm a thug, the product of a broken home

28. When my mother delivered me, she didn't have milk, and I was breastfed by an Arab woman. Maybe that had an effect on my leftist views.

29. I was the seventh of nine children. When you come from that far down you have to struggle to survive.

30. 'I was adopted by pro-life Christians when I was a kid. [Mimes gunshots] Does my penis make me a bad boy? That's what they told me!' Please, give me the Satan-worshiping family down the block : the ones that have the good albums.

31. It doesn't matter how one was brought up. What determines the way one does anything is personal power.

32. I have found it; I have discovered the cause of all the misfortunes which befell him. A public school, Joseph, was the cause of all the calamaties which he afterwards suffered. Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality.

33. Our parents were kind of scared to let us outside of the house, because where we lived was pretty dangerous.

34. We clicked in an intangible way' probably because of our upbringing.

35. For the most part we inherit our opinions. We are the heirs of habits and mental customs. Our beliefs, like the fashion of our garments, depend on where we were born. We are molded and fashioned by our surroundings.