Quotes About Youth

I really want to be a mentor to other Islander kids, because I understand the pressure they are under from their parents.

I feel like I've been mentoring young guys for a long time.

I am very passionate about mentoring, training and channelising the youth energy of India because I believe the youth of India is extremely creative and if we can channelise their energies in the right direction, we can make India a global leader in the creative and innovative areas.

Freddie Mercury inspired me when I was young.

When I was a kid, Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell were mere blips on the gaydar; and they were both still in the closet.

I was in a movie called 'Before & After' with Meryl Streep. I was edited out of the movie, but no one told me. I think I was 18 or 19 years old. I sat across from her and asked her every question about acting. I completely embarrassed myself.

In the mess of moving from place to place, I skipped two grades in the space of one year.

I had lots of fun; I was in the boy scouts, I went camping. I just used to mess around like a normal kid.

If I could give my 14-year-old self any advice it would be to look after your hair. Don't mess with it!

When there's not girls around you have no choice but to mess around with your guy friends, as guys do, so we got into making each other laugh and get each other in trouble and stuff like that at an early age.

That's what Major League Baseball's steroid scandal was all about, the hidden harm in competitive sports that sends the wrong message to the young.

Fashion is one industry that can really change things around for young boys and girls and make them feel like they are not left out. It can send a message that one doesn't have to look a certain way to be considered more beautiful or fashionable.

I think my books talk about kids learning to like and respect themselves and each other. You can't write a message book; you just tell the best story you know how to tell.

You can't be preachy - kids are allergic to messages.

Lots of boys pick strong messages about who they are and who they want to be from the media.

Messi and Ronaldinho were the two players who were my idols when I was young.

Growing up, I loved Messi. I love how he dribbles, how he plays the game, it just makes it look so easy and it makes it look so fun.

To see my name alongside the names I've looked up to all my life is crazy, Messi in particular. When I was younger I was a ball boy during a Barcelona and Chelsea match at Stamford Bridge and seeing him up close was amazing.

But I've been freestyling and messing around with rhyming since I was 13. That's when I really started listening to hip-hop music.

When people start messing with their foreheads and can't lift their eyebrows, that's weird.

If I'm being honest, I was messing up on every other level in my life growing up - whether it was in school or in my jobs. I was always distracted by my love for music.

I never met a kid I liked.

At the time me and X met, we weren't homeless, but we were basically homeless.

When we first met, I was trying to put a band together. I asked around at school for other guys who wanted to play in a band. Someone told me about a juvenile delinquent they knew who played bongos.