I was raised in a group home for 14 years, so I was a beneficiary of philanthropy. I didn't have a family. The nameless, faceless strangers were my family. They gave me an education, put food on the table and clothes on my back. I am who I am because of that formative experience. Now I am paying it forward.
My father was brought up in an orphanage in the Catskills. He was a factory worker. And because his family wasn't there for him, family was everything. We could disagree inside the house, but outside the house it was us against the world. So when I became a drag actor, he looked sideways but said okay.
We expect teachers to handle teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, and the failings of the family. Then we expect them to educate our children.
I loved reading Grimm's fairy tales and Hans Christian Andersen, and I loved to dream about other worlds and other lives. Maybe that has something to do with having an incomplete family, being an only child. All I know is I loved to pretend, and all that was in tandem with my wanting to be an actress.
I grew up in a family with three brothers and sisters who joined my family through the foster care program, and I also have a sister who joined my family through a faith-based organization.
Growing up, my height was faithfully tracked from infancy to my late teens on the door frame of my mom's office - the only place in my family's home in Toronto where writing on the walls was encouraged.
We come from fallible parents who were kids once, who decided to have kids and who had to learn how to be parents. Faults are made and damage is done, whether it's conscious or not. Everyone's got their own 'stuff,' their own issues, and their own anger at Mom and Dad. That is what family is. Family is almost naturally dysfunctional.
I'm lucky to have family around me. Otherwise, I'll be taking the risk of falling in love with myself.
I'm not really into the fame thing. I've met so many celebrities now, and everybody's just the same. I'm a bit of a family bird.
A family is a risky venture, because the greater the love, the greater the loss... That's the trade-off. But I'll take it all.
The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.
A man should never neglect his family for business.
The greatest thing in family life is to take a hint when a hint is intended-and not to take a hint when a hint isn't intended.
Little children are still the symbol of the eternal marriage between love and duty.
I have frequently been questioned, especially by women, of how I could reconcile family life with a scientific career. Well, it has not been easy.
The family is one of nature's masterpieces.
Rarely do members of the same family grow up under the same roof.
The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.
Children are the keys of paradise.
The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one's family and friends; and lastly, the solid cash.
