Gavin O'Connor Quotes

When I was a child, writing was the worst possible choice of a career in my family.

Since the beginning of time, every child on the planet has endeavored to please their parents.

My parents split up when I was 16, and, while Mum came to a few Tests, Dad didn't make many. So I was glad he was at Lord's.

My dad always played sports. He played football. I always wanted to play football because my dad played football, but my mom never wanted me to play football because she said she couldn't take me getting hit.

I don't like feeling vulnerable. I think my mum and dad's divorce affected me more than I let on.

I remember when I was a kid, with the acting thing, I resented it because, you know, you don't want to do what your parents want you to do.

My mother wanted me to be a writer. But she was a child of the Depression and never understood that she wasn't poor. So, you know, the idea of not having a job, it would creep through. But she tried very hard to be subtle about it.

Both my parents were amateur badminton players. My father is a scientist and wanted me to be a doctor. But my mom was very aggressive and loved badminton. She pushed me right from the age of nine to take up the sport.

I lived with this tremendous fear of failure because my father was a playwright and a director, and I think he did a couple of things as a child as an actor as well, and he... he failed, basically.

When I was seven and told my mom, 'I'm gonna be a writer,' she said, 'Oh, that's a terrible idea. You'll live in misery and die teaching other people's children badly.' My parents wanted the safer path for me, and I think they failed miserably achieving that.

I'm lucky in that I don't like sweet things at all. My father loved cakes to such a degree that he kept forcing them down my throat when I was little, and it put me off for life. He had terrible cholesterol, poor thing.

Of course, my father was a soccer player. He used to play very good. Then, when I was young, eight or nine years old, ten years old, I just want to be like my father.

I don't have a regular happy family like most people. My parents are separated; my dad married someone else and so did my mom. All my siblings are from my parents' other marriages. So yes, it is complicated, and I don't like talking about it or explaining this to everybody. But all this doesn't stop us from being close to each other.

Being the youngest, I was a bit of a daddy's girl and sought attention from an early age by singing. I don't know where I got my voice, but ours was always a musical house.

I have six brothers and one sister. I grew up playing ice hockey, a total tomboy, and that's what I thought I was going to do - be an ice-hockey player.

And my parents' separation was tricky. But my mum had always been really honest with me, and treated me like an adult even when I was really young, so I knew they hadn't been getting on.

I didn't have a father when I was growing up, and I vowed to be there with my kids.

My father was a doctor, and I admired him and got along well with him. He took me with him on house calls. We were living in Flushing, which was then a sleepy village of 25,000 - before the subway got there. I've been sure I wanted to be a doctor since I was about 12.

My mom kind of led me toward acting. She wanted to be an actress when she was younger. That made me interested in it when I was a kid, because she and I are very close.

My mom wouldn't let me do child acting.

I think daughters can change the perception of their fathers.

I had such total, unequivocal, enthusiastic encouragement to be an actress. Looking back, I really find that to be a total mystery. Don't ask me why. My father was just in love with the idea that I would be an actress.

I didn't grow up, really, in the film business, even though my parents are both artists. I grew up in New York City. They would never put me into acting. I just kind of wanted it, and I told them that.

If I hadn't wanted to become a footballer, Dad wouldn't have made me do it.

I come from quite a creative family; everyone's just doing their own thing!