Growing up in Ireland, when my family received important news, good or bad, we would boil water and make tea. It was the first thing I did when my father died in 1984. This ritual allowed me a moment to take in the enormity of what had happened.
‐‐ Roma Downey
Growing up in Israel, how can I not be an optimist? When you remember what Israel was 50 years ago and you see Israel now, one of the most successful countries in the world, stable, democratic, with an enormously stable economy despite everything that has happened in the global economy in the last few years, how can I not be an optimist?
‐‐ Ehud Olmert
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.
‐‐ Grace Jones
Growing up in Kansas City, I was always neat, the teacher's pet, know-it-all type.
‐‐ Gretchen Rubin
Growing up in Kentucky, I used to hang out with four running buddies as a kid - 6, 10, and 11 years old. Two of them would later come out, and so 50 percent of my friends as a kid were gay.
‐‐ Hal Sparks
Growing up in London was the best.
‐‐ Rita Ora
Growing up in London, with a hippie mom, I don't know that I'm most people's definition of what a black person is. I'm mixed, yes, but in the world I'm defined as black before I'm defined white. I've never been called white.
‐‐ Carmen Ejogo
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.
‐‐ Hunter Hayes
Growing up in Memphis, I have always admired St. Jude's for the magnificent work they do.
‐‐ Ginnifer Goodwin
Growing up in Miami, I had all these great, strong influences. You know, being Cuban and the Latin influence, but also the strong hip-hop influence.
‐‐ Kat Dahlia
Growing up in Michigan, I can't think of anything so explicitly communicated to me in my whole education experience as the vileness of in-your-face racism.
‐‐ Kevin DeYoung
Growing up in Minnesota, I had a lot of freedom to run around, and we had go-carts and four-wheelers and all that stuff. I like that adrenalin-rush stuff. I did a little bit of dance, but mostly sports.
‐‐ Beth Riesgraf
Growing up in Mississippi - a state that historically was a place of racial injustice, inequality and oppression - gave me the unique opportunity to experience first-hand the evolution of the civil rights movement through the eyes of my parents, grandparents, and the black elders of our community.
‐‐ Angela McGlowan
Growing up, in my under-15 days I used to be a wicketkeeper, and that carried on till I was 17. Then I started focusing on my batting and moved on. I got into the Ranji team quite early, and generally, as a youngster, the first place you are put in is at bat-pad and short leg, so you had to work on your close-in fielding straightaway.
‐‐ Rahul Dravid
Growing up in Nashville, especially in a music business family, means growing up with knowledge that seems like common sense until later in life when you realize people spend thousands of dollars a semester trying to learn or pretending to learn while looking for some intern job on music row.
‐‐ Caitlin Rose
Growing up in New England, being schooled and classically trained, it needed to shake, it needed to evolve.
‐‐ Emeril Lagasse
Growing up in New Jersey, bat mitzvas were all about the elegant parties.
‐‐ Judy Gold
Growing up in New Orleans and just being in a poverty-stricken neighborhood gave me that same fire that Eazy had to separate himself from what could have ended up being such a bad situation.
‐‐ Jason Mitchell
Growing up in New Orleans as Archie Manning's son, I felt like a target, and I've always known that whatever I'd do, people would hear about it. So I've had my guard up, and maybe that's molded my personality.
‐‐ Peyton Manning
Growing up in New Orleans helped me live a real life. I experienced so many things.
‐‐ Jason Mitchell
Growing up in New York City, I was always encouraged to question authority, and I think I confused patriotism with jingoism.
‐‐ Claire Danes
Growing up in New York City, my car culture is minimal. I rode on the train, the bus. I walked; I rode my bike, and when I was younger, I rode my skateboard.
‐‐ Ramon Rodriguez
Growing up in New York has influenced my style so much, and I have an amazing relationship with my stylist, Estee Stanley. We have so much fun with the whole process. She picks out dresses, I try things on and play dress up, and we get creative to see what works.
‐‐ Lea Michele
Growing up in New York, I loved watching my grandmother Estee put on her make-up - I always admired her sense of style.
‐‐ Aerin Lauder
Growing up in New York, I was sort of shocked when I realized that my children are Californians. They are 14 years old, and I explain to them frequently that they will never realize the glory of a snow day. You wake up and the world says, 'Oops, it's too much fun to go to school, you've got to stay home and deal with the snow!'
‐‐ Adam Savage
Growing up in New York with artist parents - a very liberal environment, where we were always encouraged to challenge the status quo - I think for a long time I confused jingoism with patriotism. And that is a mistake.
‐‐ Claire Danes
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.
‐‐ Cathy Marie Buchanan
Growing up in North Carolina, my mom was always just sort of my mom to me. I never really recognized her as a famous actress. I'm always thrilled when she's cleaning out her closet. Last time, I got a pair of boots that she bought in Paris 20 years ago. I have completely worn them out.
‐‐ Margaret Qualley
Growing up in northern California has had a big influence on my love and respect for the outdoors. When I lived in Oakland, we would think nothing of driving to Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz one day and then driving to the foothills of the Sierras the next day.
‐‐ Tom Hanks
Growing up in Northern California, I've only seen snow at Christmas maybe twice in my life! I was always jealous of my cousins on the East Coast with their white Christmases.
‐‐ Guy Fieri
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.
‐‐ Marshawn Lynch
Growing up in Ohio and just being kind of an average guy from flyover country - my dad was a factory guy - I try to put things on a screen that reflect reality. I don't mind if people want to argue with that, or think that's crazy.
‐‐ Roger Ailes
Growing up in Oklahoma the way I did, and being raised the way I was raised by my parents, gave me such a strong foundation to go out into the world and fly, so to speak, the way I was able to do.
‐‐ Suzy Amis
Growing up in Pakistan in the 1980s, I lived in the shadow of a tyrannical state.
‐‐ Mohsin Hamid
Growing up in Paterson wasn't the easiest thing.
‐‐ Victor Cruz
Growing up in Poland, I didn't have the experience of going to Disneyland as a child, so I don't have any childhood memories connected to it, good or bad.
‐‐ Abel Korzeniowski
Growing up in politics I know that women decide all elections because we do all the work.
‐‐ Caroline Kennedy
Growing up in public is especially hard sometimes.
‐‐ Annette Funicello
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.
‐‐ James Langevin
Growing up in Rhode Island, my friends would have strung me up if I had been a Yankees fan.
‐‐ Charlie Day
Growing up in San Diego, I can remember going with my brother to see bands like Pennywise and NOFX - good punk bands that were fast and tight.
‐‐ Vic Fuentes
Growing up in Seattle, I had the opportunity to take classes since I was 7 years old. I did theatre. I auditioned for film, television, commercials, and built up not just a resume but also some confidence. I learned how to master my craft before arriving in Los Angeles.
‐‐ Zoe McLellan
Growing up in Seattle, I was always that kid who didn't subscribe to what everyone else was wearing.
‐‐ Chris Benz
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.
‐‐ Kevin Kwan
Growing up in South London, we went to a school where there were not that many Jewish kids. I love being Jewish in L.A.; it feels really normal. The culture seems to be integrated into Hollywood. Everyone uses Yiddish words like 'schlep' and 'schmooze.' That's what I love about New York, too.
‐‐ Hannah Ware
Growing up in Southern California, it's all car culture. When I was a kid, I knew every single model of every single car dealer; I knew every style of every year.
‐‐ Cheech Marin
Growing up in Sweden, I decided pretty early on that I wanted to go to acting school.
‐‐ Helena Mattsson
Growing up in Texas and Oklahoma, Ben Johnson was more famous than John Wayne to some of us. I knew him. I worked with him on a low budget film years ago, and we'd sit around at night while waiting for a shot.
‐‐ Bill Paxton
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.
‐‐ Jerry Hall