Kathleen Hanna Quotes

Before The Simpsons, I was 4 years old, so I don't know exactly what I was thinking before that.

Growing up, my brother and I were begging for attention.

I don't think in my family anyone looked after anyone. It didn't matter how old they were.

Well, I was about six or seven, and my mother and father separated.

I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw that my bath toys were a toaster and a radio.

I think Dad didn't really treat us like children; he treated us more like little adults. We were good kids.

My parents split up when I was young, and I was living with my mom for a little while, then I was kind of just on my own really young. It wasn't some kind of global tragedy, it was just never really a very close-knit family. So there was support in the sense that they didn't stand in my way.

Like, my mother would have company over, and I would sing so they'd pay attention to me.

My parents never condescended to me. As a child, I always sat at the head of our dinner table. I was always given a lot of responsibility.

I used to be a dusty little child.

Mum and Dad paid me 50 pence, which was a lot of money when I was 8 years old, not to dye my hair.

I don't have the best family life. I'm not going to have a sob story and be like, my parents abandoned me, because they didn't. But they also are not that present. When I'm alone, I'm alone. I don't have anybody to call, and so I have to create meaning from myself.

Given the amount of work and time my mum devoted to my sister, it left me a lot of time to play on my own. I mean, I played with kids in the street all the time, too - I definitely wasn't denied a childhood. But I do wonder whether, in a sense, acting was my way of getting noticed.

I grew up as an only child, so inherently, most of my life was centered around me. My parents taught me to play well with others and to share my toys, but I was still an only child who didn't have to share my parent's attention with siblings. As great as my childhood was, I always wanted brothers and sisters.

I certainly enjoyed having my sister, because when she came I felt a certain responsibility to help her fit in, and help her learn English. I wanted her to play with all my toys. I was actually, I think, really scary to her, because I had so much energy.

One day, when I was about eight years old, some kids pushed me on stage at school during a talent show because they knew I could sing.

I stood in the bay window at our house and I sang Away In A Manger. It was my first time on stage, but there was nobody watching. I just remember it was so natural and it was such a secret - like masturbating. I felt like I had to wait until everybody was gone. So I guess six years old would be my most important age, 'cause in that moment, I just knew what I wanted to do.

I'd begun to think that he'd given up on me in the weeks that had passed. Or that he no longer cared about me. Hated me even. And the idea of losing him forever, my best friend, the only person I'd ever trusted with my secrets, was so painful I couldn't stand it.

My mom was proud but very hands off. She didn't really know enough about the model industry, and she didn't have the time to stop her life to go chaperone me. I think she trusted me.

I think it's so incredibly special to be able to try to recapitulate that feeling I had when I was sitting in that theater, as a 7-year-old. It's an extraordinary job. I'm incredibly lucky.

Mom and Dad were great, but being asked where I was going every time I left the house - or where I'd been every time I returned - got old quickly.

Right from the start my parents had left me to fend for myself. Apparently unaware that I was a kid, they invariably treated me like an adult, perhaps because they themselves were no spring chickens.

My parents divorced when I was one year old so I don't really remember any of the details, but luckily my mom does so she's been really helpful.

Sometimes my family thinks I've made my childhood a bit more Dickensian than it was, and it probably wasn't all that bad. But I was uncomfortable as a kid.

I was about six years old, still Daddy's little girl, even though Daddy couldn't care less about me. How could I expect any man every would?