My parents didn't agree with what was going on, you know, with the communists coming in, Fidel Castro. I didn't see the reason why I needed to go back there and be a part of that exhibition.
I had good parents. Two older brothers, bit of a handful between us, all got ginger hair, a bit fiery. I remember a very happy childhood.
I guess that's one of the things about growing up in the fifties - it never occurred to me that you wouldn't be at least as successful as your parents.
Everyone talks about how we're on our phones all the time, but the fact remains that when I'm away on a film set for two months, I can Skype my family. I remember the phone calls my parents had to make when my dad was away for a while when I was younger - that once-a-week expensive phone call! The time pressure on talking to your father!
I was always a show girl. My parents were wonderful. There wasn't a lot going on where we lived, but they ferried me to classes and competitions all over the place. When I was 12, I came to London as a finalist in a singing competition and I was completely wide-eyed.
Impossible to spend sleepless nights and accomplish anything: if, in my youth, my parents had not financed my insomnias, I should surely have killed myself.
I was on significant financial aid, an only child, with parents who didn't have much living in North Carolina.
It can be a huge help to parents considering the adoption of an older child, when college is just a few years away, to know that there are post-adoption resources and specific financial assistance opportunities available to them.
While they would have provided financial support if I had needed it, the greatest support my parents gave was emotional, psychological.
When I first came to Seoul to start model work, I felt bad asking for financial support from my parents, so I lived in the sauna for about six months.
My dad loves what I do and I support my parents financially because they didn't have a job that gave them a pension.
My mom grew up in Idaho, went to Brigham Young University: they're very Molly Mormon. And my father is, like, first generation Albanian, and his parents lived in Southey and grew up in downtown Boston. My parents are complete opposites.
This might be the first generation where kids are dying at a younger age than their parents and it's related primarily to the obesity problem.
My friends and family are not really fixated on the specifics of 'Star Wars.' My parents don't know anything about 'Star Wars.' They've never watched a 'Star Wars' film.
There are a lot of parents who've come to me and said about their daughters, 'Oh my God, she's 21, she's totally flailing. Your story gives me hope.' I put my mom through that.
There are so many cruel decisions parents have to make when their child dies. The funeral director requested a sheet for the coffin, and I sent the cozy flannel one, pale blue with happy snowmen, that had just been put away with the winter linens.
My dad has worked so hard his whole life. He doesn't deserve to see his daughters going out embarrassing themselves and flashing their knickers. I want to make my parents proud.
I am hoping, though, that many of them have kids, who, when they have a moment to take a break from their iPods, Internet, or Google, will explain to their parents running the country just how the world is being flattened.
I think our first heroes with whom we discover flaws are our parents.
I've grown up with my parents' music tastes, listening to Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones.
