Quotes About Youth

I never thought I'd be anything, coming from a rough neighborhood. So my character was built on the street. I had to know how to carry myself; I had to act like I was older than I was.

I lived in mafia neighborhoods off and on when I was a kid. If you were in Little Italy, in East Harlem, in Brooklyn... Those neighborhoods were, in those years, dominated by mafia families. You knew it and you felt it, you know?

Young black men in this country have to understand that they have a responsibility. They cannot be the enemy in their own neighborhoods and usurp the effort of good people that are trying to make things work.

I personally think that gentrification happens long before you start seeing white people in formerly people-of-color neighborhoods. It starts happening when we start telling the young, hard-working, quote-unquote 'smart' kids that they need to measure success by how far they get away from our communities.

I was going to different neighborhoods around Brooklyn battling cats back in - this started in '82, so that's like eighth grade. Maybe 13, 14.

'Ders' is something I've been called since I was six by neighbors and stuff growing up.

When I was younger, most people thought my lips looked like Tweety Bird's - there were always comments like that from family and neighbors.

I played for the first time when I was three. My neighbour was six, and I went to train with him. But I don't have many football memories from when I was young.

When I was a boy, the neighbours all knew who I was because I'd take a ball with me everywhere I went.

I started on 'Neighbours' when I was 14. It's crazy to think now that I had such a bizarre adolescence.

When I was a kid I was definitely into Neil Young.

I grew up on, and kind of came of age, during the grunge movement and was introduced to Neil Young and Bob Dylan and grew up on that path.

I was never happy, and neither were many of my friends. We were just normal kids that were not so excellent at what society wanted from us at that time.

I always joke with people that having nephews is the best birth control there is.

I got a motorbike at three; we've still got it. It was an R50. Hopefully my little nephews will play on it.

I did play Jesus in 'Godspell,' in high school, because I guess I'm a nerd.

When I was little, I wanted to be a civil engineer. Not a ballerina, not a doctor, a civil engineer. I was such a nerd.

I was a nerd growing up, and I'm a little antisocial and awkward.

Even though I wanted to be John Malkovich or Sean Penn when I was a kid, mostly I was a music nerd.

My deep dark secret is that I was a nerd in school. I liked the theater. I liked to study. I wasn't very good at sports.

'What's It Gonna Be?' is about having a massive crush on someone, so it made sense to go back where - to school, where it all began. But it was important for us to explore those archetypal characters - The Jock, The Nerd, The Dork, The Popular Kid - and then flip expectations.

I was a bit of a film nerd as a kid.

I was a nerd, growing up, I was really into computers and technology, and most of my friends were basically in that world as well.

Young people need to see that you can be a nerd and still be cool.