Deeyah Khan Quotes

I didn't try to copy my dad or fit into the pressure or the mold that everybody tried to make me fit into.

I basically applied to law school as a way of telling my parents that I wasn't going to medical school.

The first 10 years of my professional life had only to do with running away from my father. He was a wonderful cabinet-maker, and me being the eldest son, I had to take over his shop, his profession and so on and so on. I tried to escape by going to art school and then going on to industrial design and then interior design.

I had a beautiful mother and a famous father, and I didn't know where I fit in.

I'm from a family of bankers and businessmen, and here I am, the artist, the black sheep.

My dad was not happy about my not becoming an architect like him.

When you're in a world, and your parents are one way, and you're told, 'This is how the whole world is, and this is how you're supposed to be,' and you're terribly unhappy in that world, it's a very scary thing.

I think, initially, my rebellion, my rebellion of going to college when my dad would have liked me to stay home and work in the herbs, I think that it was a pretty mild rebellion in the sense that I thought, 'Well, I'm going to go learn how to be a music teacher so that I can come home and do choir.'

My father wanted me to go to France, U.S. or Japan to study. I told him I wouldn't go anywhere, I'd stay in Cameroon and do my music with my friends. He said that the devil was in me and called a priest to remove it. I was the only guy who didn't want to go to Europe - he thought I was crazy.

My father wanted me to play pro football, and he didn't like the fact that I'd left school. And he said, "It takes a man to play football. And any fool can go up on the stage and make an ass of himself.

My mother and her plans for my future. She had it all worked out. I would attend a nice college, then get a job in advertising. "You'll be one of those smart-looking fellows in their Madison Avenue suits." And I rebelled against [my mother] and her values and her plans for my future at every opportunity.

Your fear that your parents will actually kill you for dropping out of college is something that I think a lot of children of immigrants would maybe relate to.

My weight was a huge issue as a young person. For my mother, for my father, and for my siblings... nobody in my family is overweight. And here I come.

Growing up, my dad was 'get a real job, don't go pursuing your dreams, that's how you become homeless.' So, do I pick my family or do I pick my own happiness, and how much does my own happiness depend on my family?

If I don't call my mom back, she'll go on Twitter and say, 'Adam hasn't called me. I'm worried about him,' and strangers will say, 'You're horrible. You go call your mom right now!' It's very complicated.

I knew my whole life that I had to make ends meet or I would be ashamed of myself. I had a lot of pressure from my parents. So that's where my vision comes from. It's not to be a great artist, it's always to be like, 'Dad, look, I didn't let you down.'

My mom said, 'You are reckless, and you need to get married.' And I was like, 'Okay.'

I think it's always natural for children to rebel against their parents and establish their own identity. And also, I think parents get invested in, you know, doing the right thing? And so their anxiety about being good parents might, in a way, affect a relationship negatively.

There is no pressure from my family to get married.

It's funny 'cos I think a lot about kids who grow up with their parents being really important members of their fields, and they just go the opposite way.

My earliest memories of defying my parents were through music. I remember rap being banned in my house, and then getting a Cam'ron album.

At 36, I think I was pretty happy [actually], but here's the thing that I think happens... you're expected to be somewhere at 36, and there's that feeling: At this particular age - especially for women for God's sake - you should have this many kids, you should have a husband, or you should have this... and it's overwhelming. So that perpetuates the feeling that no matter where you are, no matter how much money you have, no matter how many kids you have, no matter how great they're doing, whether you want kids or not, married or not, it doesn't matter - you feel behind.

Try not to worry what your parents think - try to help them see that you do live by the values that they taught you.

What did my parents say when I told them I wanted to be an actor? 'Be a plumber.'

No one had ever said anything like that to Evie. Her parents always wanted to advise or instruct or command. They were good people, but they needed the world to bend to them, to fit into their order of things. Evie had never really quite fit, and when she tried, she’d just pop back out, like a doll squeezed into a too-small box.