I was always a pretty theatrical kid, a draggy kid… a little sissy. I dressed up in my grandma’s heels and clothes… It’s always been in me.
I am the product of two very strong women, my mum and my grandma, who prioritized education.
I remember once asking Grandma about a book she was reading, a biography of Abraham Lincoln, and how she answered me: this was the first conversation of my life that concerned a book, and ‘the life of the mind’ – and now, such subjects have become my life.
In swimming, everyone calls me grandma, because I’m the oldest there. Then with my friends, I’m the youngest and I’m the baby. It’s definitely bizarre.
My mum was very supportive, and I don’t really understand why when I think of her humble beginnings. She grew up in one room with my grandma, my grand-dad and her siblings and a fire-pit outside to cook on. Now she’s a homeowner in Manchester and has a business.
At the heart of my family is a woman who has spent 60 years taking care of others. Nurse Grandma, as we affectionately call her – my mum Sue – is who everyone in our family calls when there’s a cough that won’t go, or a temperature that needs bringing down.
For many children, it’s seeing a beloved relative ill and in pain that leads them to want to become doctors. But, for me, it was watching my grandma get better.
I didn’t have cable television growing up; there were only six channels you could watch then. The only really good channel was channel 10, and they would play ‘The Nanny Called Fran’ every night for years. I’ve seen every episode 100 times. I would get my Grandma to make me leopard skin dresses on her sewing machine.
Mystery Men you can take grandma, you can take everyone to see this film.
Banging on the piano while my grandmother was watching me. I’d run up to her and ask: ‘How was that, Grandma?’ And she’d say, ‘That was beautiful, baby!’ And I’d run back to the piano and play some more. I’m sure that’s why I still play today, because I was encouraged from such a young age, 2 or 3.
When I grew up as a kid, a part of my life – I grew up in Boston near Revere Beach, at my grandma’s, and she would take me to the beach.
I was thinking about it: so many of my stories are about my family life, not about being related to a lot of famous people. That’s my grandma, that’s my mama, my daddy, my aunt, my uncle, my stepdaddy. I’d probably tell them even if they weren’t well known.
I have not been to Cuba, though if you count the stories my grandma told me growing up, I’ve been there in my head many times. I think someday I will see it, when things are different there, but I’ve come to feel like I really am a Miami girl.
I hang out with my grandma, go to sleep at 8:30, and that’s it.
I grew up with my uncle’s comic books at my grandma’s house, so I’ve always loved my comic book reading.
That’s what it is to be a grandma. All fun and no stress.
I’m not afraid to eat breakfast at three in the morning. As a kid, I used to go to bed at 8 P.M., wake up at 1 A.M. when my grandma would cook me breakfast, and then I’d pass out again.
My grandma has a picture of Louis Farrakhan playing violin in her house.
Being a grandma is lovely.
I wasn’t a hoarder, but I was on my way. I went to thrift stores and never didn’t buy something. A lot of cat figurines, needlepoint, afghans. Grandma stuff, I suppose.
As a kid, my grandma would be dancing all the time.
I want the little lassies who are thinking of going to a nightclub in Cardiff to stop to see what that guy’s screaming for, or Grandma to put her knitting down to see why that guy’s chatting about Alexander the Great. I’m after pulling in, whether it’s in Manila, Beijing or whatever, the biggest possible audience.
During my grandma’s funeral, I looked over once and saw my mom crying, and I felt so bad for her.
Alot of my inspiration comes from people that you don’t see on TV like my mum and my grandma. There’s so much history and knowledge.
My grandma used to call my mother ‘Tuppence’ as a term of affection, but she was worried when my parents actually put it on my birth certificate. She thought I might get bullied.
My grandma was really sick when I was working on ‘Sin Nombre’ and eventually died that summer when we were finishing the film. But I was able to bring an unfinished version of the film for her to watch.
Being a grandma is lovely.
My favourite place to eat is my grandma’s kitchen. She makes a mean crab cake.
As an organization, I think you owe it to the vast majority of people who go to the game and want to watch the game and enjoy the game and feel good about bringing their kids or their wife or their grandma to the game.
My grandma was raised in Ghana, and she went back there to work, so she could earn money for my mum’s education in Nigeria. It’s where it all began, and that dedication to education is the only reason I’m here.
I remember being young in the backseat when my grandma would take me to school, and I would be literally singing and belting out Tina Turner at 3 years old.
My grandma said – when I was really young and I’d sing along to the radio – why do you sing in an American accent? I guess it was because a lot of the music I was listening to had American vocalists.
My dad was a very quiet person, and unbelievably tough. But my grandmother gave me my first look at negative thinking to bring about positive results. When I was just a little guy, anytime I came to my grandmother and said I wish for this or that, Grandma would say, ‘If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.’
I’m a nice middle-class girl in real life, and I’m a mom and a grandma, and I usually play sweet characters.
I’m introverted, and all my friends make fun of me because all I do is work out and play golf. I’m a grandma: stay in most nights and asleep by 9:30.
My first CD that I had was the Ying Yang Twinz, and my grandma bought it for me. Honestly, I think my grandma got it from a thrift store or something. She just got it for me. It was in downtown Philadelphia. And I would listen to it. I liked it. None of my friends did, though, but I liked it.
I could take my grandma and put her in a cape, and they’ll put her on a green screen, and they’ll have stunt doubles come in and do all the action. Anybody can do it. They’re relying on stunt doubles and green screen and $200 million budgets – it’s all CGI created. To me, it’s not authentic.
My grandma died by cancer.
My mom has a tape from when I was, like, 2 years old, talking with my grandma, telling her a story that’s really elaborate about werewolves and wolves.
My grandma passed in ’78, and that’s the year I started recording. It’s also the year that my dad retired from his career. So it’s funny how torches get passed on, and you feel a responsibility to be connected to the music that they did and try to carry it on in your own way.
I once interviewed my grandma for a class project about the Second World War. After 70 years filled with marriage, children, grandchildren, death, poverty and triumph, the thing about which she was unquestionably the proudest and most excited was that she and her family did their part during the war.
As my grandma used to say, ‘Between now and then, a pope could be born.’ We never say what’s going to happen tomorrow. We make the most of today.
The coolest Christmas present I’ve ever received is probably socks. My grandma always gets me socks – every year – and that’s something that I’ve probably never bought for myself. If Christmas wasn’t around and my grandma didn’t get me socks, I wouldn’t own any, probably.
Whenever I’ve not known what to do, I’ve always gone back to the Carter Family because there was nothing like singing with my aunts and my mom to my grandma.
My grandma used to have a backyard and we put a hoop, a shaky hoop, up there. We used to just shoot at it. We shot at it so many times, we broke it. We had to get a better one, because that one wasn’t good at all.
I don’t speak Spanish. I’ve done Spanish 1 and 2 classes. My grandma asked me when I was young if I wanted to learn Spanish, and I guess I was young. I should have, because it would have helped me a lot.
I grew up cooking. I was always in my grandma’s cooking, and I never thought of it as a career.
Some people will have working-class, front-room grandma taste that is better than other people’s. I went to stately homes that are a bit duff, and stately homes that were absolutely eye-popping.
I’m a grandma at heart.
Man, after all my grandma put into me learning the piano, that was a hard day, telling her I was telling jokes for a living.
A lot of TV has moved away from family viewing. But with ‘The Royal Bodyguard,’ we have tried to make a show when no one will be worried about sitting there with their kids or their grandma.
My mom, grandma, great-grandma – we’re all named Mary, and we all play piano and sing.
I love the simplicity, the ingredients, the culture, the history and the seasonality of Italian cuisine. In Italy people do not travel. They cook the way grandma did, using fresh ingredients and what is available in season.
I do no writing while I’m in Belgrade visiting my grandma.
I grew up in the same place as my mother, seeing the same trees my mother saw when she was at work; the flowers I picked were the flowers that my grandma planted. We have different styles; I wouldn’t make the same clothes that my mum made, or my grandma, but we have the same taste.
