Quotes About Youth

You have to understand, when you're 15 and you're doing this Steven Spielberg movie with megastars - Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts - you know you want to be cool. I don't know how cool I'm going to look with my belly button out!

People have dreams, don't they? Young people have enormous vision for their futures. I think a lot of them are realising that they won't necessarily be Robbie Williams but they might be brilliant businessmen and businesswomen.

My brothers and I came to L.A. as break-dancers when I was about 10, and by the time I was 15, I was working on this really big movie, with Steven Spielberg and Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams.

My brother and I loved 'ThunderCats' and Robin Williams coming out of an egg in 'Mork & Mindy.' At the time, I thought it was funny, but looking back, it was a crazy concept!

Like a lot of young lads who dreamt about being a singer, I was a massive fan of Robbie Williams and couldn't believe my luck when, not only did I get to meet my idol, but sing with him, too.

I was a lusty kid who loved Tennessee Williams.

I left home when I was 17 with Joe Williams.

I saw an amazing film when I was 16 called 'Slam'. It's about a spoken-word poet. Saul Williams is in it.

By the age of 15, I knew over 40 Hank Williams songs.

If I were a teacher, I would like to teach freshman English - so I could be the Robin Williams type in 'Dead Poets Society.'

I was named first-team Jersey Shore by the Asbury Park Press, the paper I used to deliver as a young boy. I got to Houston and Coach Williams invited me to walk on the golf team. I was the 18th man on an 18-man golf team.

Is Pharrell Williams hotter than Justin Bieber? I don't think so.

My form of rebellion was starting to play guitar. I was 13. The first song I played was 'Lovesick Blues' by Hank Williams.

Willie Mays was the best ever. When I was in college I once made a catch like the one Mays made over his head. Sometimes when I'm lying in bed at night I think about it. It still makes me warm.

This is what boxing always needs - two young, undefeated fighters willing to risk their '0.'

I want other kids to see the joy in reading and literacy and how, if you read about things, they become so much closer, and if you're willing to put in the effort and time and passion, you can really understand them.

The first willing concert I went to was Aerosmith when I was like 14.

The sacrifices ordinary American men and women from communities large and small have been willing to make, often before they were past their teenage years, have secured our nation unprecedented freedoms and made us the world's bulwark of liberty.

I knew I was a manic depressive when I was 13 or 14, and I loved it. I always told people what I had, and I was always cresting on a manic wave. I used it, willingly and happily, and it was an extraordinary experience. When I got hit with the depressive side - Boom! - yes, it was horrible and unendurable, but that's part of the story.

What we want in students is creativity and a willingness to fail. I always say to students, 'If you've never at some point stayed up all night talking to your new boyfriend about the meaning of life instead of preparing for the test, then you're not really an intellectual.'

Part of me is stuck in my childhood in the Eighties. I actually watch 'The Neverending Story,' 'Labyrinth,' and 'Legend' over and over again. Also, 'Willow' and 'The Goonies.'

I never had to try as a kid to stay in shape. In a way, there was no willpower involved.

A young and vital child knows no limit to his own will, and it is the only reality to him. It is not that he wants at the outset to fight other wills, but that they simply do not exist for him. Like the artist, he goes forth to the work of creation, gloriously alone.

My brothers and I had a gospel quartet, and that was the only music people listened to. But I was already gravitating towards songs by Sam Cooke, and then one day I put on a Jackie Wilson record, and baby, I was thrown right out of the house.