I used to live with my grandmother. I used to wonder why the other kids in school went home with their mothers and fathers. I wanted to be the guy that got married. I wanted to be the guy with the children and the white picket fence. I never had that.

At one point, I didn’t care. Now I want as many people to hear my music as possible.

I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries.

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.

Unfortunately, the highly curious student is a small percentage of the kids.

When I was a boy we didn’t wake up with Vietnam and have Cyprus for lunch and the Congo for dinner.

There’s nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It’s a thing no married man knows anything about.

In the Western Church to which I belong, priests cannot be married as in the Byzantine, Ukrainian, Russian or Greek Catholic Churches. In those churches, the priests can be married, but the bishops have to be celibate. They are very good priests.

At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.

Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.

The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous.

I am just a child who has never grown up. I still keep asking these ‚how‘ and ‚why‘ questions. Occasionally, I find an answer.

That’s what I do this for, to secure my family’s future. I don’t care about anything else. I’m able to spoil people, and that’s the best thing.

Children have always responded to me because I have that cartoon-character look.

The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name.

A man’s face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man’s thoughts and aspirations.

To the women and children, T stands for tender. To the bad guys and thugs, it stands for tough.

If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize.

Some of my foster families used to send me to the movies to get me out of the house and there I’d sit all day and way into the night. Up in front, there with the screen so big, a little kid all alone, and I loved it. I loved anything that moved up there and I didn’t miss anything that happened and there was no popcorn either.

I was brought up differently than the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy.

The Sabbath provides a wonderful opportunity to strengthen family ties.

I miss my singing career very much.

I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?

I never thought a career as a musician was possible.

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.

My wife thinks she’s better than me at puzzles. I haven’t given in on that one yet.

I have a full and satisfying life. My work and my family are very important to me.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.

I want kids. I want a soccer team, and I want a husband.

I started writing as a child. But I didn’t think of myself actually writing until I was in college. And I had gone to Africa as a sophomore or something – no, maybe junior – and wrote a book of poems. And that was my beginning. I published that book.

I’ll tell you one thing, since I’m married, single people look absolutely ridiculous to me.

Friends… they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.

Being a kid’s not easy. You’re transforming and becoming a human being. At some point, you have everyone taking care of you, and then, all of a sudden, you’re out in the world.

Marrying an old bachelor is like buying second-hand furniture.

However my parents – both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing quirk that would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension.

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

If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.

Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work.

I was bullied as a boy – lots of kids are, but hopefully most of us get on with our lives and grow up.

The United States, to state the obvious, is greatly concerned by the startling number of unaccompanied minors that – children and teenagers who are making a very perilous journey through Central America to reach the United States.

Greater love hath no man than to attend the Episcopal Church with his wife.

I wasn’t allowed to go to movies when I was kid; my father was a minister. 101 Dalmatians and King of Kings, that was the extent of it.

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.

He didn’t come out of my belly, but my God, I’ve made his bones, because I’ve attended to every meal, and how he sleeps, and the fact that he swims like a fish because I took him to the ocean. I’m so proud of all those things. But he is my biggest pride.

I can’t remember what made my dad take us karting for the first time, I can’t remember really. I was into motorsport by then and I knew everything, and every driver, it was around 2009, 2008. That’s when I first properly knew about Formula One. Those were the days.

He that has not got a wife is not yet a complete man.

Not to expose your true feelings to an adult seems to be instinctive from the age of seven or eight onwards.

Women have to summon up courage to fulfill dormant dreams.

Nothing can bring a real sense of security into the home except true love.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.

I grew up listening to the Police, I grew up performing in bars, singing Police songs.

I am against nature. I don’t dig nature at all. I think nature is very unnatural. I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature can’t touch with decay.

My parents were divorced by the time I was even conscious – like, I don’t remember them ever being together.

One time, this guy was bothering my mother, and me and my brothers had a stern talking with the guy and a little bit of physicality with him. So he disappeared. But I’m not a magician.

Dreaming about being an actress, is more exciting then being one.

My parents are my backbone. Still are. They’re the only group that will support you if you score zero or you score 40.

I knew I wanted to do something creative. I didn’t think I’d have the luxury of doing something like that, because I didn’t know anyone who had pursued anything they really adored, but I had dreams for singing or writing.

Treat your children like the blessings they are or don’t have them at all.

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.

When I was a kid, I never did funny things to get attention. I was never a funny person. I was never, like, ‚Oh, wow. I could say this some day on stage.‘