John Maeda Quotes

I feel lucky because I was a nerd, which I talk about in the book, but I had academic success, so through that, because that's what my parents put a great deal of value on, I had a great childhood because I sort of fulfilled the expectations of being good at school.

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 had to get good grades and do well in school - my mother was an assistant principal and my father was a teacher - and they took this very seriously.

About Grade 9 and Grade 10, I had a fantastic drama teacher, and it was one of the first subjects I actually felt that I was good at. I wasn't a mathematician. Didn't like science, any of those subjects. English and Drama were the two subjects that I loved and felt that I was good at.

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

My parents don't press it but, you know, they're into good grades.

I have never been jealous. Not even when my dad finished fifth grade a year before I did.

I liked English and art and did a lot of painting. And for some reason I was good at math, but I wasn't an A student. I really had to work hard to get good grades.

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.

My parents were obsessed with my education.

My parents were obsessed with us being normal kids, so I never knew movie stars. They didn't want us to be Hollywood brats.

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 public school, and I didn't do well in school. And it wasn't until, actually, I got into school at Juilliard - it was the first time in my life that I thought, 'Oh, maybe I'm not stupid,' because I was so inspired and passionate about what I was learning, and it was the first time in my life I had felt that.

I would like my kids to study well.

I had a fantastic upbringing by two parents who cared deeply about their children but, more importantly, believed that anything was possible for their children and, in some ways, almost brainwashed us to be successful.

I'm a child of academics.

My mother was a powerful influence. She made me toe the line. If I didn't have a perfect report card, she showed her disappointment.

I had two parents who were doctors, and my mom was valedictorian in multiple classes.

When I was six or seven, we went to the nearest English primary school, St Weonards, about seven miles away. The teaching was good, and this was the start of my beginning to shine as a student.

I was spectacularly average at school, while my two brothers did really well academically. But my dad never said I didn't try hard enough. He knew I did my best.

Chinese parents always think you can do better. But it comes from wanting you to succeed.

My mum and dad pushed me to work hard in my earlier years in education.

My parents used books as bribes: if I got straight A's on my report card, they would buy me one book. This was completely unnecessary, as I always got A's, and they bought me books all the time anyway, and we all knew it.

In fact, both my parents were doctors but I was a duffer.

Our father never had to yell at us much when we were growing up. No one ever wanted to let Dad down.