Ann-Marie MacDonald Quotes

When my mom, Mercedes, and her younger sister, Juanita, first came from Puerto Rico, they were the youngest in the family. They had to jump into a new community and really learn English, assimilate, and adapt - and I saw that. I grew up in that community.

I was born in Costa Rica and we moved to America where it was a whole new world for me.

When I came to America from Sweden, Mother and I, we went to Chicago where our relatives lived.

Millions upon millions of people came here full of hope and aspiration to this extraordinary land of liberty and opportunity, and helped build the United States. So the Atlantic Ocean was absolutely critical to the story of America.

The people of the United States live in a new country, that is, I mean new to western civilization. They came here to get rid of Europe, many of them; some to worship God in their own way and carry on their governments in their own way. They were freed from the long warhabit of Europe.

When my mother, sisters and I arrived on the shores of America when I was 8 years old, the boat on which we came, a freighter, passed the Statue of Liberty.

I can't tell you how many times I get into a taxicab in New York or Los Angeles, and I'm talking to somebody who is a recent immigrant who was a doctor or lawyer or engineer or professor in the country they just came from. They're starting over again in life, and I think the majority of people out there can relate to that.

My father, when he arrived in this country found it difficult.

Once I got to the U.S., and I realized we weren't going to go back to Britain, I was ready to commit to starting a bigger life here.

When my mom was pregnant with me, my parents moved from France to America.

As a child, I thought we had come to Mumbai for a holiday. I did not realise that this holiday was permanent.

On my 7th birthday, in 1970, I left India and came to America: to this land of incredible opportunity.

My parents were among the first families from their area to leave Nigeria and come to America, the land of the free.

My family fled the Soviet Union when I was three and a half years old. Upon arriving in New York City in 1979, my father worked multiple jobs to support us, all the while learning English at night.

The truth is, my father stopped bothering me after Stigmata, because I got to play a priest. That fulfilled his dream. The cop thing was a little overdone to him because my brother was already a police officer.

My father got a job at Bradford University in textiles. And he came for - I guess, you know, why do people immigrate? - like, for a better life to find, you know, a new world. And, you know, I think he always - he saw it as an opportunity. And so yeah so we came to this coal mining town in the north of England and that's where I grew up.

The fact that my parents got over to Canada is kind of amazing in and of itself. Had they not immigrated when I was a child, I probably would have never been doing what I'm doing. So, thanks, Canada!

Years later, when I asked my father, I said 'Pop, why were you so much harder on me than my younger brothers?' he said, son, you plum wore me out.

If I'm talking to someone and they're feeling a certain way, I will definitely tie into that very quickly. You have to learn to read emotions and feelings when you grow up in a family with four brothers - especially if three of them are a lot bigger than you.

Years ago, when James Bulger was murdered, every newspaper front page was talking about evil. At that point, having suppressed it for years, I remembered when I was four or five, I tried to kill my own brother.

My brother is undoubtedly arrogant," Tyrion Lannister replied. "My father is the soul of avarice, and my sweet sister Cersei lusts for power with every waking breath. I, however, am innocent as a little lamb. Shall I bleat for you?

Few sons are equal to their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them.

I have a lot of older brothers who messed up in different ways in my mother's eyes. So I learned from all of their mistakes.

I always wondered why God was supposed to be a father," she whispers. Fathers always want you to measure up to something. Mothers are the ones who love you unconditionally, don't you think?