My mom and my dad were both very sociable, meeting lots of interesting people.

I’d go to, like, six different schools in one year. We were on welfare, and my mom never ever worked.

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

My mom is American, so I was raised in her household in my formative years.

I’m pretty laid-back in real life. I just love hanging with my friends and making jokes. The jokes don’t stop – literally, all day.

For me, often, there’s such a cloud of melancholia about knowing I’m going to have to leave my daughter on her own. I don’t know what age that is going to be, thank God. It just doubles me up in grief.

People want to go out and travel around and meet cool people. I could just go live in Vermont, but is that what I really want?

What can I say? I’m a talker.

The great thing about having a bunch of kids is they just remind you that you’re the person who takes them to go poop!

My other brother-in-law died. He was a karate expert, then joined the army. The first time he saluted, he killed himself.

It’s true; once you are a father, there’s no turning back. Your heart strings as well as your purse strings are never again the same.

If your mom cries a lot, you probably cry a lot. It’s what you learn.

The kindness that’s been shown to me, by doctors as well as my family and my friends, it’s really saved my life.

I am just happy to be part of the Nike family.

I love being American, and I love family. I love having a family, and I feel so blessed, and I feel like God gave me exactly what I wanted, so now I have to do the right thing in God’s eyes also. Just follow what God wants me to do.

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.

Part of our tradition as black women is that we are universalists. Black children, yellow children, red children, brown children, that is the black woman’s normal, day-to-day relationship. In my family alone, we are about four different colors.

I knew I was blessed with a gift of having both parents.

Lil Wayne, that’s my brother. Birdman, that’s family.

Basketball is my passion, I love it. But my family and friends mean everything to me. That’s what’s important. I need my phone so I can keep in contact with them at all times.

You know, my family and friends have never been yes-men: ‚Yes, you’re doing the right thing, you’re always right.‘ No, they tell me when I’m wrong, and that’s why I’ve been able to stay who I am and stay humble.

As you get older, you have more responsibilities; you have more commitments, more events, kids, you’re married now. You still have all the things that you’ve had, plus you just keep adding.

The people you choose to have around you make all the difference. My family and close friends keep me grounded. You have to have a mind of your own and a strong head on your shoulders. Cricket is the most important thing to me, so the rest of it pales in comparison.

My kids always perceived the bathroom as a place where you wait it out until all the groceries are unloaded from the car.

The problem with me, as far as getting married and having a family, is that my comedy is so important to me. So I don’t know if I’ll ever be as good a dad as my dad.

My father used to wear the same pants for like a week.

What’s so beautiful about Miami is that we support each other. We’re just one big family, not just the entertainers, just everyone in general.

At the age of 6, a teacher full of ambitions, who taught in the small public school of Biran, convinced my family that I should travel to Santiago de Cuba to accompany my older sister who would enter a highly prestigious convent school. Including me was a skill of that very teacher from the little school in Biran.

I didn’t have any children of my own.

A mother defends herself with a heart filled with love before doing so with words. I wonder whether there is any love for the church in the hearts of those who pay so much attention to the scandals.

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do… but how much love we put in that action.

Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.

My work and my family are very important to me.

I never had a mother. I suppose a mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.

I believe that my parents did wonderful things for us.

All parents are concerned about their children’s well-being. As a parent of three kids, I’m very concerned about their well-being.

So, do you live around here often?

In this country, it doesn’t make any difference where you were born. It doesn’t make any difference who your parents were. It doesn’t make any difference if, like me, you couldn’t even speak English until you were in your twenties.

My upbringing was solid because of the people I had around me.

Maria is the best reason to come home.

If I walked into the kitchen without washing my hands as a kid, I’d hear a loud ‚A-hem!‘ from my mother or grandmother. Now I count on other people to do the same.

If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.

My dad seemed comfortable with his decision to be a ‚have-not,‘ but I knew that I wasn’t.

My parents were both storytellers. They always spoke with metaphorical richness.

Probably because I’m from a middle class family, I have that nature in me that I don’t get too excited with big things.

I’ve been through natural disasters. I lived down in Miami and was down there for Hurricane Andrew which was a Category 5. There were members of my family that thought they were going to die. Everyone was in the bathtub.

I’ve said this time and again: My greatest concern coming into the White House was making sure my girls came out whole and normal, and decent and kind, just like I would expect them to if we were living on the South Side of Chicago. And it takes work to keep White House life normal for the kids.

I want to – more than anything – to create a moment that people will never forget. Not for me, but for themselves. That’s what I remember about great Super Bowl performances in the past, when you really get lost in the moment with your family.

I remember when my mother, Shyamala Harris, bought our first home. I was thirteen. She was so proud, and my sister and I were so excited. Millions of Americans know that feeling of walking through the front door of their own home for the first time – the feeling of reaching for opportunity and finding it.

My mother was very strong. Once, she picked up a coconut and smashed it against my father’s head. It taught me about women defending themselves and not collapsing in a heap.

Because of my parents‘ love of democracy, we came to America after being driven twice from our home in Czechoslovakia – first by Hitler and then by Stalin.

What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others.

I don’t travel with them, but they can’t be missing in my home. There have to always be dominoes… I used to play with my family – dad, my grandpa, my uncles.

You know, my sister sings, my brother plays drums in my band. My whole family is a bunch of musicians.

It’s just hard to meet new people, in my position.

I mean, families are weird.

The name Zahra was to have been lman’s own name at birth, but a senior member of the family changed it to lman at the last minute.

My mother would kill me if I posed nude! My mother raised me with certain standards.

We should not look down on our first ancestors.

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

All of my brothers and sisters are very talented. They all sang all right.