Quotes About Youth

I'd always sing 'Greatest Love of All' by Whitney Houston. I just want to make clear, though, you know those people on 'Star Search' who are the little 7-year-olds that sound like Christina Aguilera? That wasn't me.

A lot of those young folks look up to me in the city of Houston. I give hope and inspiration and try to change people's lives for the better in the city of Houston.

I was doing gigs at 16, belting out all the big ballads like Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.

For me, it was just a case of seeing what stage I could actually get to. For every kid it's the same, you don't know how far you can go until you get a bit older and things start to become a reality.

I went 59.9 sec. when I was 18 and thought, 'Hmm, that was fast - let's see how much faster we can go and what the rest of the world can do to keep up.'

Children can only take so much, and they deal with it however they can.

I was a huge punker growing up.

People who have been successful in business have a huge amount to offer young people who are just starting out.

I was a huge fan of comedy when I was a child.

I'm a huge fan of music in schools and music education because that's how I grew up.

I really enjoy watching the younger talent like The Shield rise up on the card and make a huge impact.

Music was always a huge part of me, but I always did it on the side. I didn't even take any music classes in high school... it was more of an extracurricular thing.

College applications are such a huge part of senior year, yet often times you never see characters in books actually do work.

I remember seeing 'Gremlins' and having my mind blown and seeing 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' at 13, and it was this hugely aspirational experience.

When I was growing up, my favorite movie was 'Somewhere in Time' with Christopher Reeve, which is a hugely romantic, sappy movie. I couldn't understand it when the guy didn't get the girl or the girl didn't get the guy in love stories. I was definitely a sap.

After a year or so I really thought I was Howard Hughes. Here I was at eighteen years old, getting all these checks.

I think saying 'a John Hughes movie' is just shorthand for a lot of people to say 'a coming-of-age story,' because I think, when you're of a certain age, that's what John Hughes means to you.

I like John Hughes movies.

There are so many great John Hughes movies covering so many different genres. You can pull so much from him.

My discrepancy with children in the industry is that they are made famous before they know who they are as human beings.

As a young black American you become desensitised to it, it's just like 'oh, another guy, another kid died today.' That's so, so sad cos we are talking about human life, the most sacred thing we have.

Gosh, for me, when I was 15 or 16 years old, I was just starting to understand ideas and film and things like that. And then, you go see a movie like 'The Matrix' that absolutely blows your mind. It's not just trying to entertain you, but it's also trying to explore something about human nature and ask some really deep questions.

Young people, throughout history, have always been the lifeblood of every movement for civil and human rights.

Humanitarian work is something I've felt from very young, and I'm going to do that for sure.