When I first went to New York I was right out of high school, I was 17 years old, and I had never seen a building over two stories high.
I first began to read religious books at school, and especially the Bible, when I was eleven years old; and almost immediately commenced a habit of secret prayer.
The prime goal of censorship is to promote ignorance, whether it is done via lying and bowdlerized school texts or by attacking individual books.
I couldn't fight, and I wasn't particularly interested in the academic. So I started doing satiric bits in the school bathroom. Guys would cut class to come and see me.
I went to an all-girls' Christian convent school run by nuns. It was fun, but when I was 15, I said, 'Mum, that's it - I need to go where there are some boys.'
The whole market mechanism and its evolution is something that, I'm kind of of the Buffett School. You know, if I see a derivative, I run the other way.
I thought everybody had falsetto. And since I wasn't a schooled singer who studied with anybody, I just thought anybody who had a voice could do anything they wanted with their voice.
That smell of freshly cut grass makes me think of Friday night football in high school. The smell of popcorn and cigar smoke reminds me of the stadium. The cutting of the grass reminds me of the August practice.
When I was younger, I had pink underneath my hair, and I got detention. I went to an all-girls school where you wore a uniform, and pink hair was not OK.
There's nothing wrong with you. There's a lot wrong with the world you live in. And definitely get out of high school and make everyone sorry.
I think that the mere fact that I'm doing it ought to inspire someone. In junior high school the counselor suggested that I focus on wood shop and metal shop.
My senior year I was basically supporting myself, so it was like, Do you want to eat and pay the rent, or do you want to go to school? I wanted to eat and pay the rent.
I was running since I was 10. Since grade one at school people looked at me and thought, oh gosh she can really run, she's a natural.
One of the first times I came to New York was for a modeling and talent competition, IMTA, which I won. I came with a group, like a modeling school from Fresno.
I never thought I'd play soccer past high school, so to go from that team to actually being most-capped and three World Cups is pretty special.
I always sang. I wanted to be in a band with my sister, and I was, at 11. At 12, I started writing seriously, and that was my pacifier all through high school - that and painting.
I learned how to sign because when I was growing up in California in order to get into college you needed two semesters of language to get into a University of California school.
In high school I was on the basketball team, but the coach did something I didn't dig and the next day he looked up and saw me practising with the football team.
I always dream about other musicians. And they're never interested in hanging out with us. It's like being at school and the bigger boys don't want to play with you!
We need candidate schools to recruit more young African-Americans to run for office and more diverse law enforcement communities.
As a teenager I was crazy about David Bowie. He was a huge inspiration for me. I dressed a little bit crazily in school and dyed my hair every colour under the sun.
