Quotes About Family

My two brothers and I grew up in the theater, going everywhere with my parents when they performed.

My dad is a director/producer and my mom is a dancer; she performed with Alvin Ailey, but I didn't even think about becoming an actress.

I've always performed. I've done plays at home.

My mother sang jazz and opera - she even performed at the Apollo on Amateur Night.

You put me in the room with my family and everyone I grew up with, and I'd be the last person that you'd say is the performer.

I was always a performer kid - like, annoyingly so. I would put on shows for my family and direct my friends in little plays, and my little sister, I'd make up dances with her. But when I was 12, that was when I started taking it seriously, and my mom for some reason believed in me and helped me find an agent in Cleveland, which did nothing for me.

Yes, I mean, I can't match up to my mother's acting skills, actually both my parents. I just cannot match up to them. My mother was such a powerful and a respectable performer. They are actually overshadowing me and yes, I cannot be as good as them.

Basically, whenever I watch my mother on screen, I never judge her as a performer; I always see her as my mother and I become emotional.

I definitely always wanted to be a singer and a performer. I think I got it from my parents because my dad's a singer and my mom's a singer, so it kind of runs in the family and I just thought it was normal.

Every performer has to decide for themselves whether they feel they can combine family life and their performing life, and they have to establish a division that makes them happy. I never thought it would be a problem and it hasn't been.

All of them - my father, mother, step-mother, and grandmother - were all wonderful actors and performers and they are an inspiration to me, both in their craft and in their humanity.

Most performers spend half their earnings taking care of family members.

My family aren't performers. They're just normal people. They don't understand this entertainment world. They just think it's mental. They have no idea what I'm doing in America.

I think for me, as far as cooking, some of it came naturally just from watching my dad. My dad was more of the cook than my mom was, so it's just handing it down from generation to generation. I just love to cook and have fun. And as performers, we love to cook, and we love to entertain people.

So I would dance and she would sing, and it was kind of a family thing. Performing was part of our world.

I was always the class clown, and I think I gravitated toward performing for the attention I didn't always think I was getting at home.

Before I even knew what that half of my family did, I was interested in performing. I remember being seven years old and up on a stage and loving it. I've always adored it. Not just acting, but the whole process of writing and directing movies, everything that has to do with that part of life. Maybe it's in my blood.

As long as I am given the opportunity to keep performing and keep exploring in whatever medium, I'll be happy. As long as I get to spend time with my family, I'll be happy. As long as I can write in some form, I'll be happy. It is the essential things like that I equate with happiness.

I had a very active imagination as a kid, and I was constantly performing, whether I was making money doing it or not, whether it was on a stage in front of 1,000 people or in the living room in front of my family.

I began my career performing in plays and musicals in New York, but by the mid-'80s, opportunities in Hollywood beckoned and I made the move to Los Angeles. It was a good decision. Work took off, but most important, I met my family out there - my husband, Bill, and the children we would adopt: Elijah, Mae-Mae, and Aron.

I didn't really start performing until high school. My whole family is actually in the business, and started in the business in Chicago, so I was going to shows when I was a teeny-tiny kid, but I didn't really start performing until high school.

My mom actually had a band called Six Pack - even though there were seven of them - who went around Chicago performing popular songs. Her voice was like Gladys Knight mixed with Aretha Franklin.

I come from a family rooted in the arts, so I think I naturally gravitated towards performing from an early age.

To be confident going out and performing, I need to be with my son for as long as possible; then I know I'm happy, and he's happy, and I can go out and put all my energy into performing.