Harry Mathews Quotes

My dad, coming from a very traditional family, always wanted me to be a doctor. So he would always ask me, 'What are you going to be when you grow up?' And I'd have to say 'Dr. Chen.'

My parents themselves both went to university, and they very much expected me to be an intellectual and go through further education, and it's to kind of their surprise that I became an athlete.

I went to Brooklyn College as an education major. It was a big deal in the family, but really, I was living for Mom and Dad.

My parents always wanted me to go to college.

I once asked my father what he wanted me to be. To my horror, he said, 'sociologist.'

My parents from a very young age raised my sister and I under a pressure to achieve. They're both attorneys. So good marks, getting through university, there was a huge emphasis and pressure to do well and keep going.

People think I must have pushy parents, but that's not the case.

I studied at a university in Florence and finished my degree. My mother was very strict about this recipe: You need to get your degree.

I got into the Shanghai Drama Institute because my parents, like all parents, want their children to have good grades and to go to a good college. I became a college student because of them.

It was just expected that I would go to college. Both my parents are teachers and they tolerated acting, but I was going to go to a school of quality or bust. Which made my downshifting back to acting afterward a little difficult.

Education is very important to my parents and to me.

It wasn't like I was self-motivated. My dad started me. It was his dream before it was mine.

My father didn't push me.

Nobody just leaves medical school, especially given it's fiercely competitive to get in. But I had a sister who was a doctor, another who was a pharmacist, a brother who was an engineer. So my parents already had sensible children who would be able to make an actual living, and I think they felt comfortable sacrificing their one strange child.

My parents wanted me to get a degree.

I know I haven't been the greatest student, but I do intend to get my degree. Otherwise, my mother will kill me.

My mother was very strong on me to go to college. No one had ever been to college, including my parents.

I kept on telling my parents school wasn't for me. And they were like, 'No you need to go university.'

Getting a good education was of immense importance to my parents.

My parents are wonderful, practical, sensible people, and the expectation was that I would study something academic.

My parents were amazing and wonderful, but there was a lot of pressure to do my best and in every way possible.

My parents had very high expectations. They expected me to get straight A's from the time I was in kindergarten.

I think my parents wanted me to be whatever I wanted to be. But I do remember them - when I first moved out to L.A. - sending me applications to grad school for teaching.

I was an educated girl. I'd done very well in school. I had a good point average and graduated from USC as an English teacher. My dad didn't even finish high school.

I know plenty of Hollywood kids who still struggle with being whole. Their lives are never fully their own - always in the grip of a parent who put celebrity ahead of them.