I would have rebelled against parental authority, no matter what. When I was 15, I started painting my face and making my own clothes.
I was 12 when my parents told me we were moving to Lebanon. I remember thinking, 'Leba-who?' I had absolutely no concept of the place.
You go to a theater now and you literally see parents watching the movie and they suddenly cover their kid's ears. I figured I'd make one movie where they didn't have to do this.
I didn't even realize this at first, but there's almost no central character in any of my 24 books who doesn't have a dead mother or a lost parent.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens 'till parents stop clenching their fists around precious things and people, let go, & trust God!
Being an actress wasn't realistic. I knew that I was going to have to do it in a way that would speak to my parents. So I went to NYU Tisch School of the Arts for theater, and I studied at the conservatory.
As for the American child's classic problem - too much mother, too little father - that would be cured by an equalization of parental responsibility.
When I was little, I knew that I was not adopted, but I actually imagined and hoped that I was - and that my real parents were going to come get me.
Some parents say it is toy guns that make boys warlike. But give a boy a rubber duck and he will seize its neck like the butt of a pistol and shout 'Bang!'
I was so tiny when my parents split up that I can't remember them ever being together. That was never an issue, as I guess I never went through the trauma of them splitting up.
I've always had to force myself to make friends and speak to people. My parents were quiet, and it took me a while to get used to the fact that people talk about their feelings, their problems.
I was brought up in a way that when you're at a dinner party, you don't grab a chip unless it's been offered to everyone else. It's the manners of being brought up by English parents.
I completely appreciate the importance of fathers but millions of children are without loving homes. I think a child is lucky with one parent who truly loves her.
The most loving parents and relatives commit murder with smiles on their faces. They force us to destroy the person we really are: a subtle kind of murder.
I'm lucky to have parents who used to be bodybuilders! They help me keep fit by going to the gym and training with me. I'm also addicted to Cardio Barre classes and hiking.
But parents and schools have their priorities; making sure our kids eat right because research shows a clear connection between nutrition and student performance in school.
Sometimes I would like the opportunity to do character-driven comedy and that's really what I was trying to do in Meet The Parents. I think in a way this is a more old fashioned type of comedy.
Is advertising a profession, like law or medicine? How many new parents clutch their baby to their breast and declare, 'I want this child to grow up to be a media planner'?
I was very much a latchkey kid. My parents would feel the back of the television to make sure I hadn't been watching it when they were gone, which inevitably I was.
I would say that my parents were intermittently proud of me. They couldn't hang onto it, you know? It would come and go, like the flu.
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.
