Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

At 10, I heard Neil Diamond's 'Solitary Man' and it moved me so deeply I stood, frozen in place during school recess, feeling such empathy for the narrator in Diamond's masterpiece that my heart was smashed.

English fiction was something I loved growing up, and it changed my life - it changed the trajectory of my life.

If I do a poetry reading I want people to walk out and say they feel better for having been there - not because you've done a comedy performance but because you're talking about your father dying or having young children, things that touch your soul.

I remember visits to the local libraries and getting my own library cards as things of rite-of-passage significance.

I remember how beautiful the Merrimac looked to me in childhood, the first true river I ever knew; it opened upon my sight and wound its way through my heart like a dream realized; its harebells, its rocks, and its rapids, are far more fixed in my memory than anything about the sea.

Youth is a time when we find the books we give up but do not get over.

My father was a swim teacher. We used to swim before school, swim after school.

When I was 5 years old, my mother read me 'Gone With The Wind' at night, before I went to bed. I remember her reading almost all year.

When I think of how we show faith, I cannot help but think of the example of my own father. I recall vividly how the spirit of missionary work came into my life. I was about thirteen years of age when my father received a call to go on a mission.

'House' was such a special part of my life.

My father taught me photography. It was his hobby, and we had a small darkroom in the fruit cellar of our basement. It was the kind of makeshift darkroom that was only dark at night.

Not every father gets a chance to start his son off in his own footsteps.

I've got a love affair with Harley-Davidson. One of my earliest photos with my dad is of him holding me as a baby on his bike.

I've been doing the Vietnamese nail lady impressions since my mom first took me to get my nails done when I was 12.

My first recollection of performing was shortly after my parents split up, so the logical conclusion to draw is that that affected me.

My first memory of guitar was seeing my father play one.

I was 10 years old when the Northridge quake happened, and I lived right in the area, so it was a traumatic thing for me. I'd never had anything like that happen before. It's always stuck with me.

My father used to be a fisherman, so it always makes me feel close to him when I am there on the water catching my dinner.

My sister bought me the Koran in 1990. I always thought the stories in it were magical.

I was eating cereal on my couch when I saw the first commercial for 'The Wiz' on TV. I dropped the spoon and the tears came out of nowhere.

As a child, I would rush to the school gates as the bell went, to be collected by my mother, Marilyn, who was always immaculately dressed in a pencil skirt and matching jacket.

All my life, everything important that had ever happened had always happened somewhere else. But Sputnik was right there in front of my eyes in my backyard... I felt that if I stretched out enough, I could touch it.

I can't speak for others, but I miss my father.

I got into history when I was 11 years old, and it all started with the Titanic. I'd read books in the library about it. Of course I've seen the movie, too - I don't think I've ever cried that much.

I realized my father's sister Joanne, who died at 19 had instilled her spirit in me.