Words matter. These are the best Birthday Quotes from famous people such as David Ulevitch, Akhil Sharma, Blair Underwood, Sylvia Plath, Rhea Pillai, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
My mother still sends a cake to the office for my birthday.
Seven years into writing a novel, I started to lose my mind. My thirty-seventh birthday had just come and gone, the end of 2008 was approaching, and I was constantly aware of how little I had managed to accomplish.
My son had his eighth birthday recently and we had a chance to borrow the film and show it to all of his friends that was at his birthday party and they loved it. I was a little nervous. I said they might not even like it, and say his daddy’s movie is wack, but they loved it.
My mother’s face floated to mind, a pale, reproachful moon, at her last and first visit to the asylum since my twentieth birthday. A daughter in an asylum! I had done that to her. Still, she had obviously decided to forgive me.
Yes, Leander locked me out. I’d gone with my child for a birthday party. Leander and his mother were running out of the building as I was entering. They even put my clothes in boxes and threw them out.
I love a card. You know, cards? At birthdays? I collect them.
When I was eight we went to Las Vegas for my brother Michael’s 21st birthday, and my bedtime was pushed back quite late. I was always waking up as everyone was rolling in from their night out. It was an eye-opener!
I’ve got more than 600 pairs of Ray-Ban sunglasses, from 1950s originals to newer models. I have them on the wall like opticians do so I can pick out a pair that goes with my outfit. I had around 30 pairs, then my husband Rainer started getting them for me as birthday and Christmas gifts.
Traditionally Presidents Day was Washington’s birthday. It was celebrated as a public holiday on February 22 each year, in peace or in war.
School was a big source of anxiety for me. I hated school. I have social anxiety, and it developed when I was a kid. I had trouble going to birthday parties. It was always there. I begged my mom to let me be home-schooled at one point for a semester because I was so miserable at school.
I’m most comfortable in my birthday suit.
On my 30th birthday, all the presents I got were boxes of food. That’s what I needed.
Facebook has gone from a nice-and-boring social network to becoming an identity layer of the web. It is where nearly a billion people are depositing the artifacts of civilization in the 21st century – photos, videos, and birthday wishes.
If I’m about to forget my kid’s birthday, I want the phone to scream at me until I do something about it.
Having studied at the Sorbonne, I spent my 21st birthday in Paris and celebrated with one of my professors in a cafe outside of Notre Dame.
If we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday at a time of presidential inaugurals, this is thanks to Ronald Reagan who created the holiday, and not to the Democratic Congress of the Carter years, which rejected it.
I think football saves many people. It can give you a life of luxury, but people don’t see all the effort that goes in behind the scenes. That might mean not seeing your family or missing your mother’s birthday; many players are so focused that they miss the birth of their children.
I’ll sometimes forget it’s my birthday, but my mom has taken to calling me at the exact time of my birth, so that’ll usually remind me. It was an important moment for me, obviously, but I guess a more memorable one for her.
Does Martin Luther King really want his birthday commercialized?
My birthday is a day when all I want is to bask in the love of my family and rarely accept offers for concerts and shows if they are to be held on this day.
Our kids will never have to remember things, because it’s all in pictures. Want to remember your fourth birthday? There’ll be video of it on your phone.
It was a big pleasure to play a Grand Slam match on my birthday.
I did not have a normal life. I’d be training when my sister would be at birthday parties and sleepovers. I finished high school by correspondence, basically working two full-time jobs. The last years were very, very tough. But I was willing to do that. It’s all about sacrifice.
I was hurtling towards 40, and I’d always wanted to write. It does focus your mind, heading towards that big birthday. If there is anything you think you want to do, you think, ‘I probably should have a go now!’
The first memory I have in the world is of death and tears. That is how I would mark the beginning of my life: the way people mark the end of one. My family had gathered at Papa Joe’s house because Mam’ Grace was slipping away, only I didn’t register it that way. For some reason I thought that it was her birthday.
On my actual 16th birthday, on the actual day, I went home and I had chicken korma and Peshwari naan bread and pilau rice, and that was fantastic.
My dad bought me a dartboard for my 11th birthday, and I became intrigued by the game.
I miss my mom and dad. They brought me into this world and I wish they were with me on my birthday. So I don’t celebrate it much.
I cried on my 18th birthday. I thought 17 was such a nice age. You’re young enough to get away with things, but you’re old enough, too.
You always get a special kick on opening day, no matter how many you go through. You look forward to it like a birthday party when you’re a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.
Handmade presents are scary because they reveal that you have too much free time.
A 1920s dress I wore on my 21st birthday… literally disintegrated on me. I had the most wild debauched night. And that disintegrated dress sits in my closet – such a great memory.
My birthday is Feb. 11, and I’m both excited and not excited by it. You’ll never be 15 again, and you really, really need to savor every day like it’s your last.
I was a fortnight away from my 16th birthday when the fabled 2005 Ashes series ended. My hero-worship throughout it belonged to Ian Bell – though I don’t think I’ve ever made that abundantly clear to him.
If someone close to me forgets my birthday, I am heartbroken.
I’m tired of playing people who are complete washouts and bums. I don’t mind waiting for the good ones to come along. It’s like age. It’s never bothered me. I’ve even forgot my birthday. Many times I’ve wondered if I should tell my real age, but now I think it’s an honor, to be doing what I’m doing now at my age.
The worst part about celebrating another birthday is the shock that you’re only as well as you are.
The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.
I threw my 20th birthday party at Brown, and I didn’t even have to say to anyone not to put pictures on Facebook. Not a single picture went up. That was when I knew I’d found a solid group of friends, and I felt like I belonged.
I don’t really drink, but the one thing I really hanker after is Zubrowka vodka. If it’s someone’s birthday, I’ll pretend I like red wine for about three sips.
I can remember my father gave me a huge history of football for my 12th birthday – I used to read that a lot. I can remember thinking it was cool that something I was interested in even had a history. Most things I loved didn’t.
When I was little I thought, isn’t it nice that everybody celebrates on my birthday? Because it’s July 4th.
My father was one of the fortunate wartime servicemen: he made a full recovery from his injuries, was promoted to captain, survived the war, had a satisfying career as a colonial officer and, eventually, died in February 2002, a month before his 85th birthday.
It’s odd the things that people remember. Parents will arrange a birthday party, certain it will stick in your mind forever. You’ll have a nice time, then two years later you’ll be like, ‘There was a pony there? Really? And a clown with one leg?’
I’m good in summer. My birthday is in summer. I don’t like it when it’s too hot, but, you know, blue skies, I think people genuinely loosen up a bit, and it’s nicer.
Don’t just count your years, make your years count.
The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.
In the winter of 2012, as my fiftieth birthday approached, I began to write what turned into my autobiography, a look at my own life through the lens of food.
One of the shocks of a 50th birthday is realizing the fundamental fact that your youth is irrevocably over.
As I approach my 88th birthday, it’s become apparent to me that my eyes and ears, among other appurtenances, aren’t quite what they used to be. The prospect of long flights to wherever in search of whatever are not quite as appealing.
My best kiss was on stage. Kelly Rowland from Destiny’s Child gave me a really nice soft kiss on my lips during a performance on my birthday. It was amazing.
I’m amazed. When I was 40, I thought I’d never make 50. And at 50 I thought the frosting on the cake would be 60. At 60, I was still going strong and enjoying everything.
I had the worst birthday party ever when I was a child because my parents hired a pony to give rides. And these ponies are never in good health. But this one dropped dead. It just wasn’t much fun after that. One kid would sit on him and the rest of us would drag him around.
Somewhere it was written that October 18th is my birthday, and some people flew to Georgia to wish me! They came to my college, spoke to my professor, found out where I lived, and they were at my doorstep! I was shocked!
I’m a Virgo. That is me. To a tee. Me and Beyonce. And Amy Winehouse! Same birthday.
Towards the tail end of primary school, I was pulled aside by my headteacher and told I was joining a scheme for ‘gifted and talented’ children, that would run from my 10th birthday until I was 16.
I’m not big on dark chocolate, but I do have a sweet tooth, so it gets me in trouble. I love warm chocolate chip cookies with ice cream. Then there’s this chocolate pie my mom makes for me every year for my birthday. She’s been making it since I was younger, and there’s nothing like it. It’s really so, so good!
Cryptic messages and abstract statements are littered throughout the music of Happy Birthday, but it hasn’t made the band’s sun-baked pop-rock any less infectious.
For a meal out, my number one restaurant is Peter’s Inn. I first went there when it was an old biker bar. Believe me, when it was Motorcycle Pete’s, that was fun. I had my 30th birthday there.
Most artists don’t get paid for what they do, and they are lucky if they can persuade a friend to let them show something at a kid’s birthday party.
When I was in elementary school, I used to write letters to myself. I’d write letters and go ‘Dear Kristen-at-16-years-old, happy birthday. I hope you’re doing something.’
In Bollywood, birthday celebrations are usual and very carefree.
I never knew anyone who have growing up who had a clown at their birthday party. They are something I think of as being from the past. So I never had strong feelings about them. I do think that they can be creepy, I guess it depends on the clown.
James Gunn runs his set like a 12-year-old’s birthday party. Every day, he is so excited to come to work.
Let them eat cake.
Success happened little by little for me. I tasted the flavor of fame in small doses: I started at 10 years old when I won a music contest; I was performing at birthday parties, company meetings.
I came out at a very early age. I sat my mom down at my 12th birthday party and told her in front of my friends. She said, ‘Baby, mama already knows, and I’m going to love you regardless.’ Once I got my mom’s support, there was nothing else I needed.
Lesley Gore’s part-time field was pop singer, and in her brief but urgent prime, she was the Queen of Teen Angst. She endured heartbreak as a birthday girl betrayed by her beau in ‘It’s My Party,’ savored revenge in the sequel ‘Judy’s Turn to Cry’ and belted the proto-feminist anthem ‘You Don’t Own Me.’
I dated a guy for over a year who lied about his age the entire time. I found out after the fact and couldn’t believe it! I even threw him a birthday party for the wrong age… I couldn’t get over how hard he had tried to keep it a secret!
I love having my birthday at Australia Zoo.
Having a birthday cake squashed into your face by young kids? Delicious. I always don a Santa suit at Christmas. Remaining childish is a tremendous state of innocence.
Katherine Johnson is a shining example of what you can truly do with hard work and persistence. Under what had to be the most difficult of circumstances she persevered and stuck to her values. She is a real West Virginia and American hero. To honor her legacy every August 26th, on her birthday, is the least we can do.
Robert Duvall saw me playing at a restaurant in Louisiana and invited me to be an extra in his movie ‘The Apostle.’ He gave me a guitar for my sixth birthday, and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world.
The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.
I have this PTSD from a birthday party where no one showed up.
I remember the one time, when I was in the 10th grade and the school president, my entire school had surprised me with a birthday song during the morning assembly. It will always be a very special memory!
There weren’t any astronauts until I was about 10. Yuri Gagarin went into space right around my 10th birthday.
I spent my 21st birthday chatting with my online friends because my husband had little interest in celebrating with me, and there was no other group of people I’d rather spend time with, even if they weren’t there with me in person.
First I wanted number seven since my roll number in school was seven. But, someone was already wearing jersey number seven. Then a BCCI manager said I should take 18 since my birthday is on 18 July. At that time, I didn’t know that Virat Kohli also wears number 18.
I always wanted to shave. It is a very natural process. For my birthday I got a lot of shaving stuff.
I’m the type who minds my own business and am not keen on giving interviews on my mom’s birthday, or my dog’s birthday.
Reaching F1 was always the ultimate goal, I suppose, ever since driving a go-kart my father had bought me for my fifth birthday.
Everyone who reaches a milestone birthday in their lives has an opportunity to truly appreciate the fact that presumably we have acquired all the gifts that maturity and age can bring us.
I remember going to see ‘Starlight Express’ almost every birthday I had as a treat because I just loved it, and the idea that you could rollerskate in a sort of scary old theatre… It was sort of a novel concept.
The day before my 16th birthday I got my guitar.
My mom and pop took me to the Apollo Theater on my thirteenth birthday to see Heavy D and Keith Sweat. It was late at night, up on 125th Street, and it was crazy!
Til the day I didn’t play under-19 World Cup, nobody ever celebrated my birthday. And the moment I played for Indian team, my family got excited and ordered and cut a cake for me in front of 40-50 family members.
When I was a teenager, the actors I was really into were Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn. I saw ‘Rumble Fish’ on my 16th birthday, and around the same time, it was ‘Falcon and the Snowman’ and ‘Bad Boys’ from Sean Penn.
The things people use Pinterest for tend to be universal. The core usage is every day, common, universal things. What am I going to eat for dinner? How should my house look? What gift should I get for my partner? What should my kid’s birthday party look like?
A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age.
My second play, The Birthday Party, I wrote in 1958 – or 1957. It was totally destroyed by the critics of the day, who called it an absolute load of rubbish.
If I have the power to post ‘Happy Birthday’ on someone’s Facebook page and make them feel really good, it feels really good to make other people feel really good. I love it. I’m a huge Facebook and Twitter person. And I love talking to my fans. It’s fun.
I began seeing certain things happen in my life and other people’s lives and getting inspired by it and writing about it. And that’s where you get ‘Happy Birthday’ from and ‘Ross Capicchioni’ from or you even get ‘I’m Sorry’ from.
There are two kinds of people in crisis situations – those who fight and those who freeze. I’m a freezer, and that’s just going by the couple of surprise birthday parties I’ve had thrown for me.
The 20th anniversary of my dad David’s death coincided with my 50th Test cap and for it to be my mum Janet’s birthday, too, made it an emotional few days. It was not an easy week, being the Pink Test and my mum having had breast cancer twice.
Around my 40th birthday, I started to have extraordinary pain in my eyes and it was only happening overnight and I couldn’t figure out what the source was of this but it would literally shoot me out of bed in enormous pain, doubled over.
When I was 13 or 14, my mother used to gift me books that I was dying to read. Those are my most memorable birthday gifts.
I have a lot of respect for people who really work on their life – they’ve got this great apartment and a good personality, they write the thank-you cards and bake birthday cakes. That’s who I wish I was. When I see people cultivate their own life like that, I admire it.
My 21st birthday was awesome. I was in L.A., and it was great. I had a bunch of friends that came out. The night ended up in a completely different direction than we thought it was going to go.
I have a very good relation with rain. When I was born in Orissa, there were severe floods. Even now it rains on my birthday.
I actually had the pleasure of meeting David Bowie at his 50th birthday party in New York City. I handed him the cassette of ‘Eight Arms to Hold You,’ which I had just got an advance of that day. He very graciously thanked me and tucked it into his jacket pocket.
I have an ambivalent relationship with Margaret Thatcher. She came to power in May 1979 – a month before my 11th birthday. I was far too young to have developed a great deal of political awareness. I remember it, though – my mother excited at the dinner table because Britain had its first female prime minister.
I’m in a difficult position in the sense that, preposterous as this might sound, I don’t like being the centre of attention. I get up on stage every night and play songs, but I almost feel the songs are the centre of attention. I don’t like opening my birthday presents in front of people, either.
Mattresses! Beautiful! Let’s go buy a couple of mattresses. Give ’em to people for their birthday.
Working on good music is what brings happiness to my heart and I cannot think of a better way to spend my birthday.
Love the giver more than the gift.
My father took me and my about-to-be-traumatized friends to Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001’ for my 10th birthday party.
One week before my 17th birthday, I had a blind date with June Rose, a television actress on network soap operas, a model, and a regular on the popular Dick Clark’s Saturday night ‘American Bandstand’ show from New York. We were married five years later, one week after my graduation from Columbia.
Most of us have fond memories of food from our childhood. Whether it was our mom’s homemade lasagna or a memorable chocolate birthday cake, food has a way of transporting us back to the past.
Even when I was an engineer, I was a comic on my job. At birthday and holiday parties, I was the one scheduling and emceeing. If you work on your gift, and you’re good, it will shine through.
Interventions are really emotionally exhausting and I would never ever want to have one. In the same way, I would never want to have a surprise birthday party. That would be horrible.
Citizens, thank you for all your birthday wishes. I am 88 years old today and still lucky to live in the greatest city in the world.
It is ironic that the one thing that all religions recognize as separating us from our creator, our very self-consciousness, is also the one thing that divides us from our fellow creatures. It was a bitter birthday present from evolution.
I count the weeks and days before my birthday.
It turns out I share a birthday with Jose Mourinho. He is exactly 10 years older than me.
I remember I asked my mom for a ukulele, and she said no because she thought I would never play it. So then I got my birthday money up, and I bought my own. It was the most rebellious thing I’ve ever done.
I believe that if writers want their readers to care about a character, they have to care themselves. I have to root for a detective who screws up as much as Thorne does, who shares my birthday, my North London stomping ground, and my love of country music, both alt and cheesy.
I’ve looked after my money. As I started working around my third birthday, my first check went straight to the bank.
On my 50th birthday in 2005, my discount-wielding AARP card came in the mail. I hurled it in the trash, put on something fabulous, and had a decadent meal. Just the thought of putting it in my wallet felt like a concession.
Early on, when my wife and I were dating, we went to the grocery store, and I told her that sometimes I just buy birthday cakes, and I eat them. And she said: ‘Really? I do, too.’
You take away all the other luxuries in life, and if you can make someone smile and laugh, you have given the most special gift: happiness.
I can still remember the afternoon, on my 15th birthday, when I opened up ‘The Virgin and the Gypsy,’ D.H. Lawrence’s novella, in my tiny cell in boarding school, and whole worlds of possibility opened out that I had never guessed existed. The language was on fire and sang of liberation.
It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm.’
I’d be happy to live till 80 as long as I was comfortable and in good health. Mind you, ask me again on the eve of my 80th birthday. Even so, I hope we don’t all start living to be 120. I’m not sure I’d cope with another 60 years.
I decided if you’re lucky enough to be alive, you should use each birthday to celebrate what your life is about.
I wanted Cathy and Irving to actually say ‘I do’ and be pronounced husband and wife on Feb. 5, which is my mom’s birthday.
There are probably about 50 comedians who would come to my 50th birthday party but I’m not sure how many of them would come to my funeral.
My mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday, so I said I wanted to read poetry with her.
I used to go down every year for the remembrance of Elvis’ birthday. Memphis State College invited me to sit in the auditorium and speak to the people for one of those Elvis days.
I tried to bake a cake for my mother’s birthday – it took me four hours. It was terrible, and I cried for three days.
I know that might sound silly coming from someone my age, but I remember on my 14th birthday having a crisis like my mom should be having. I kept thinking that I was getting older, and I haven’t really accomplished anything. I remember thinking that I better accomplish something real soon.
For me, the end of childhood came when the number of candles on my birthday cake no longer reflected my age, around 19 or 20. From then on, each candle came to represent an entire decade.
I never missed a birthday. I never missed a school play. We carpooled. And the greatest compliment I can ever get is not about my career or performance or anything; it’s when people say, ‘You know, your girls are great.’ That’s the real thing for me.
Everybody should plant a tree on any happy occasion or birthday and celebrate.
Facebook lets me be lazy the way a man in a stereotypical 1950s office can be lazy. Facebook is the digital equivalent of my secretary, or perhaps my wife, yelling at me not to forget to wish someone a happy birthday or to inform me I have a social engagement this evening.
Less than two weeks before my 34th birthday, I bought pots. Most people were amazed that I did not previously own pots, but that was before I explained that I had never used my oven, and used my stovetop for my dishrack.
Ask any teenage girl to describe her perfect bedroom, and you’ll get answers like ‘a room with a private phone line, a place to hang out with friends, and for it to be way-cool and funky.’ Ask parents the same question, and ‘a locked door that opens on their 21st birthday’ might top the list!
Yes, I grew up with guns. For my 16th birthday, in fact, I received a .357 instead of a car. But there was nothing playful about them; they were tools. My parents went through a back-to-the-land phase. Most of our vegetables and fruits came from our own garden.
I’m not really big on gifts. I like giving back on my birthday.
I have always told my family that I don’t want my birthday to be celebrated and that they shouldn’t get me anything, even though if they didn’t I’d probably write a standup routine about it.
The summer before my third year of law school, I worked at a law firm in Washington, D.C. I turned 25 that July, and on my birthday, my father happened to be playing in a local jazz club called Pigfoot and invited me to join him. I hadn’t spent a birthday with him since I was 3, but I agreed.
I was quite a shy child. I would get terribly nervous and throw up before my birthday party. And then I would be fine. I feel the same now. I get nervous, then it’s fine.
I started with Katie, a doll I got on eBay on my 10th birthday. I don’t use her anymore. I’ve got a new Katie now, a real ventriloquist’s puppet.
The first posh meal out I had was on my 10th birthday.
I definitely break out karaoke when my friends have birthday parties.
And for the city’s birthday, we will host events in every neighborhood of the city, inviting all of our residents to share in the celebration of Boston’s great epic – the story of neighbors who support one another where it matters most.
There is still no cure for the common birthday.
If Congress can move President’s Day, Columbus Day and, alas, Martin Luther King’s Birthday celebration for the convenience of shoppers, shouldn’t they at least consider moving Election Day for the convenience of voters?
I like to go to anybody else’s birthday, and if I’m invited I’m a good guest. But I never celebrate my birthdays. I really don’t care.
On my 50th birthday the Rolling Stones played at my party at Grosvenor House. That’s not bad for a kid from Tooting.
When I was 11, I had an Ugly Sister birthday party. All my idea. Most girls want to be a fairy or a princess, but there I am with beauty spots and fur and fluorescent pink kiss-curls.
I was standing right behind Marilyn, completely invisible, when she sang ‘Happy birthday, Mr. President.’ And indeed, the corny thing happened: Her dress split for my benefit, and there was Marilyn, and yes, indeed, she didn’t wear any underwear.
My every birthday wish was, ‘I want to someday be on TV.’
Nicole will come up in conversations where it’s in a part of the conversation. Or we may be somewhere and I would tell some story about their mother and I. You know, we always honor her birthday.
I remember, after getting my very first CD player for a birthday, I immediately purchased the soundtrack to the movie ‘Grease.’
On every birthday, I ask my wife, ‘What would you like this year?’ and her instant reply is, ‘Diamonds! Diamonds! Diamonds!’ I’m always living in hope that one day she’ll say she just wants me!
My mom and my father’s birthday are on the same day.
The only show my mother could afford to take me to when I was growing up was ‘Cats’, for my birthday.
I’ve always wanted to buy a sports car. After the England series, I went up to my dad and said that I wanted to buy a sports car and got his consent. On his birthday, I surprised him by bringing it home. It’s a Porsche Boxter Limited Edition, and my family was thrilled to see it.
I saw a man killed in front of my eyes just before my eighth birthday.
My biggest hero, Gregory Peck, was my birthday present on April 14, 1973. I just sat and stared at him.
It’s kind of ironic that the only Super Bowl I’ve been to as a fan was when the Rams played the Titans. I was at that game. My grandpa, when he was still involved in the NFL, he got me tickets for my birthday.
After we covered Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now,’ Brian May and Roger Taylor sent us a bottle of champagne and asked us if we’d sing it on stage during the ‘We Will Rock You’ musical on what would have been Freddie Mercury’s 60th birthday.
My 50th birthday approaching felt like a big milestone to me. I’ve lived half a century. If I write about food and use my life as a fulcrum to move the story along, maybe I’ve lived long enough to fashion a narrative that has a happy ending.
I am a very private person, so on my birthday too I will spend a cozy time with my family and a few close friends!
About 50 percent of the songs on the radio are like, ‘Live like tomorrow doesn’t exist. Like it’s my birthday. Like it’s the last day of my life’… Such a large percentage of pop music is really about party time.
I saw Farrah Fawcett originally when she and her boyfriend, Lee Majors, came over to my house for a birthday party that I was having for my ex-wife, Leigh Taylor-Young.
I have a strong memory of the day I was told that my father had a weak heart and that he had to go to the hospital. He died when I was nine years old on the same day that Franklin Roosevelt died; it was his 45th birthday.
When I was younger, I was a rave kid trapped inside a singer/songwriter’s body. But I kind of figured my way out because I started making these really terrible beats on this Yamaha keyboard that my parents got me for my 10th birthday.
With my daughter, we do arts and crafts, we read a lot, we listen to music, and we cut the strings off balloons and bounce them around after birthday parties.
Nicole Richie invited me to her birthday party, and it was at Michael Jackson’s Neverland!
John Candy knew he was going to die. He told me on his 40th birthday. He said, well, Maureen, I’m on borrowed time.
I find the best birthday plans are the unplanned ones.
I guess I could say I’m an actor, which I am, but that sounds like I’m putting down being a movie star, which, let’s face it, is what I’ve become to many people. For myself, I’m a guy who was very insecure from about age 14 until the day I hit my 30th birthday.
I kept a diary right after I was born. Day 1: Tired from the move. Day 2: Everyone thinks I’m an idiot.
I’ve raced on all seven continents at least twice. I’ve probably run thousands of races. But the single race that I’m most proud is a 10K. Yes, a 10K. I ran it with my daughter on her 10th birthday.
You don’t get older, you get better.
I often imagine what it would be like if my father were still here to mark his 100th birthday, if Alzheimer’s hadn’t clawed away years, possibilities, hopes. What would he think of all the commemorations and celebrations?
I don’t know if there are many misconceptions. One is that my birthday is on Valentine’s Day. It’s on 7 June.
I think there’s something about the homemade birthday cake, because my wife, on my daughter’s first birthday, started the tradition where she takes a full cake and cuts the number birthday out of it.
You know, maybe I was just born in the wrong time, but I love all things romantic. Puffy understands that. For my last birthday, he covered my hotel room floor with rose petals and had flowers and candles all over the room.
It’s in my stars to invent; I was born on Madame Curie’s birthday. I have this need for originals, for innovation. That’s why I like Charlie Parker.
I jumped out of an airplane on my 34th birthday because I promised myself I would. I have an interest in confronting my fears.
I first picked up a guitar when I was ten years old; my parents surprised me with it for my tenth birthday. I started taking lessons when I was thirteen, but only for a few months, and then I just kept teaching myself.
I promised myself: Before your 18th birthday, you’re going to be at Jean Paul Gaultier. And it worked. I was hired.
In the world of online invitations, nothing is sacred. People will invite all 500 of their ‘closest’ friends to their birthday party – and 485 of those people will RSVP ‘yes’ without intending to show up.
I wrapped my Christmas presents early this year, but I used the wrong paper. See, the paper I used said ‘Happy Birthday’ on it. I didn’t want to waste it so I just wrote ‘Jesus’ on it.
Well, I started conducting kind of by accident. I wanted to give myself a special birthday present for my fortieth birthday, and I was living in San Francisco at the time and I started attending some of the concerts and then simply dropping hints.
I was concerned about being 40 and for my 40th birthday my wish was to go see Cher, and I got to meet her.
The Queen of Crafts herself, Martha Stewart, and I have the same birthday. I prefer to think it’s the glue-gun wielding, perfect-tart-producing Martha and not the copper pan-throwing, jail-going Martha. But I suppose if I am going to share a calendar square with some of Martha, I have to share it with all of Martha.
As far as those kinds of things, I also played at the concert to call for the release of Nelson Mandela when he was a political prisoner in South Africa. We were celebrating his 70th birthday and calling for his release.
I remember, for my fifth birthday, Chet Baker sat me on the upright piano, and he played just for me for a few minutes. I can still remember the pressure of the air on my chest. It was my first physical contact with sound.
We think of the Warped Tour as kind of like everyone’s big birthday party.
You know you’re getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.
I gave a funny speech at my wife’s birthday party, and I’m thinking, ‘Hey, I’ve still got it.’
You know, we’d just had a birthday, he was… you know, he still had a future out of him, and all I can is he was just one of the most beautiful people in the world… a very gifted man, and it’s a loss to the world, not just for us.
I’ve been a Nick Cave fan since the early ’80s when he was part of The Birthday Party thing singing Australian self-destructive rock band and I’ve always followed his work and loved it.
The thrill of performing – that’s something that hasn’t changed for me. That simultaneous joy of creating something and sharing it with an audience – it’s the same now as it was then, when it was just my cousins’ birthday party.
I’m actually a perpetual 13-year-old. I’ve never advanced beyond 13. Every day, tomorrow is my 14th birthday. That’s my kind of humor.
I crashed my boyfriend’s birthday when I was 12 years old. He didn’t invite me and so I showed up.
The highs of having a big family were that there was always someone to play with and you get loads of birthday presents. The lows were sharing the bathroom.
I’m going to hide – I always do on my birthday, I never celebrate birthdays.
I like to give people novels I think they would like, on no particular occasion – just when we’re in a bookstore together. I like to receive reference books on my birthday.
In fact, my mother got a ‘Bigg Boss’ themed cake on my 17th birthday because I was so obsessed with the show. I am one of those obsessed fans who ask everyone to keep quiet when the show comes on TV.
Did you know you’re supposed to soap and scrub for as long as it takes to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice?
I don’t like my birthday. I don’t like things that are directed towards me. It took me a long time to get over people asking me to write my name in the book.
To me, full-time mothering felt like way too much and yet not nearly enough. Lost in a landslide of diapers, birthday parties, and others’ needs, I ached to reestablish myself.
My mother always bought our birthday gifts.
From the age of 17 through my 20s, I was living on my own, so sometimes I wouldn’t even tell anybody it was my birthday. It was not a big thing for me.
I remember when I was working at Sprint, I’d work on my birthday, New Year’s Day, and even Christmas Eve. I’m just used to working on my birthday, so I’ll be celebrating it afterward.
In college, I wrote newspaper articles and songs. Then, on my 21st birthday, I sold my first book. It was a nonfiction book about women pirates – ‘Pirates in Petticoats.’ After that, I was a book writer for good.
When it comes to birthdays, I think there are two camps. There are people like me, who choose to treat it like any other day, and then there are the ‘birthday people.’ You know, those people who claim the full month in which they were born as their own.
When I was 13, my parents bought me a mini snooker set for my birthday. From the moment I first held a cue in my hands, I was transfixed.
A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.
I hate my birthday. I don’t like to celebrate it much. But, if someone wants to throw me a surprise party, that normally works better.
My parents split before my fifth birthday, and I moved with Mom and my three siblings to her native Oahu.
If you’re going to do a job, do it right. If you’re going to throw a birthday party, make it amazing. If you’re going to do anything, do it awesome.
My ace in the hole as a human being used to be my capacity for remembering birthdays. I worked at it. Whenever I made a new friend, I made a point of finding out his or her birthday early on, and I would record it in my Filofax calendar.
It was shortly before my 18th birthday when I came out and admitted that I was gay.
My birthday is always around Thanksgiving, and I always had to have turkey on my birthday. My mom was always, ‘Let’s celebrate your birthday on Thanksgiving.’ My other siblings got to have special dinners they liked. I resented turkey. For a long time, I hated turkey. I’ve kind of gotten over it.
I have been a frequent air traveler since I was a few months shy of my sixth birthday, when my parents packed me off to boarding school two plane rides away from home. Those days of being willingly handed from air hostess to air hostess as an ‘unaccompanied minor’ made me blase about the rigors of air travel.
Sinatra invited me once to his birthday party in L.A. I was young, and I felt great about it. But when I got there, the Rat Pack were all in the kitchen laughing their heads off.
My first paying job might have been doing a play, actually. My mom paid me to dress up as a flounder at my sister’s ‘Little Mermaid’ – themed birthday party when I was little.
I told my father I wanted to play the banjo, and so he saved the money and got ready to give me a banjo for my next birthday, and between that time and my birthday, I lost interest in the banjo and was playing guitar.
I enjoy the celebration of my birthday as much as anyone else does, but I always remember to start my day thanking my mom because she did most of the work the day I came into the world, not to mention all she has done throughout my life that has contributed so much to the woman I am today.
If you’ve been running a business for 38 years, you’re approaching your 66th birthday, you’ve never owed a man a penny or done anyone any grievance in your life, and you feel hard done-by and try to protect yourself and your family, but go to prison, well if that’s the society we’re living in, I’m happy to accept that.
I got my first tennis racket on my seventh birthday. And because we had a tennis court in our backyard, I played every day. By ten I was playing competitively.
About astrology and palmistry: they are good because they make people vivid and full of possibilities. They are communism at its best. Everybody has a birthday and almost everybody has a palm.
I used to go to musicals every birthday – that was my birthday present. We’d go to London, me and my two brothers and mum and dad. I think I saw ‘Mamma Mia’ about five times.
I like to keep my birthday very relaxed.
I had a ‘Cats’ phase, where I did lots of overturned furniture and trash cans. I asked for a fog machine for my birthday.
We didn’t have a whole lot of money when I was growing up either. I would always ask for magic books or magic tricks for my birthday or for Christmas and the rest of the year I either had to mow lawns or find part time jobs to help supplement the cost of doing magic.
I’ve got some incredible fans actually – so loyal and they make me birthday cards and Christmas cards. I got this package of poems and artwork based around the songs. They’ve got this thing called ‘Floetry’ where they all have to put in artwork. They’ve set up their own competitions and stuff which is kind of amazing.
Having a Mary Poppins-themed birthday party when I was 5 – all my friends went in dresses, and I went as a chimney sweep. I was a real tomboy.
I was very aware of Jeff Buckley. My brother actually bought me The Mamas And The Papas and Jeff Buckley for my birthday when I was in my early teens.
There’s video footage of my 10th birthday where I’m wearing, like, a little pink T-shirt. Then my dad comes in brandishing a copy of ‘Eraserhead,’ going, ‘Look what we’ve got for tonight!’
I was born full grown in the middle of a hurricane and an earthquake on 10 September 1954, 12.52 P.M. When I found out that I had missed lunch, I gave such a shout that the Earth stopped and spun backwards two days. That’s why I celebrate my birthday on 8 September.
For my 10th birthday, what I wanted was Beatle boots and a Beatle wig. My parents couldn’t find Beatle boots, but down at the dime store, Woolworths or someplace, they found a Beatle wig!
On my birthday, I was in Milan for the collections.
Cherish all your happy moments; they make a fine cushion for old age.
I remember when the candle shop burned down. Everyone stood around singing ‘Happy Birthday.’
I must have been yearning for some Jewish content beyond my genetic makeup because soon after my 21st birthday, I noticed I was no longer dating WASPs.
If you can give your child only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.
I have got a vintage Omega 1949 watch I love… It was a present that I got for my birthday.
I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
If you believe in romance, and if you believe in marriage, you also have to believe in divorce. It’s like, with ‘Getting On,’ a lot of people say, ‘I don’t want to watch that. It’s so dark.’ But you can’t just want to go to weddings and children’s birthday parties. You’ve got to witness it all.
I turned away from bikes when I got a bambino kart for my seventh birthday and started doing some karting, just around some cones at home, but I didn’t think at that point I knew I wanted to go into F1, it was more just for fun.
I was forced to live far beyond my years when just a child, now I have reversed the order and I intend to remain young indefinitely.
Jewellery’s not a big thing for me. The only thing I wear is a gold cross on a chain that I got for my 21st birthday. You have to take it off every day for filming, but that’s the only time I’m not wearing it. You won’t find me in rings, bracelets or earrings.
I had a happy childhood in the suburbs of L.A. My parents instilled in us an appreciation of history, art and, most important, Motown. Jarron and I weren’t allowed to listen to rap until we were 12. After our birthday I dashed to Target and bought DJ Quik’s album ‘Quik Is the Name.’ I memorized every line.
I often go to bed in my birthday suit. But I like teddies and cute little undies that match. I like a sexy bra and panty set, or little shorts.
I was only 16 when I was selected for ‘Madrasapattinam.’ I celebrated my 17th birthday on the set of the film. That was the first time I had travelled to India, and it was a rollercoaster ride. I soon fell in love with the country.
I get asked, on a sort of daily basis, ‘It’s my wife’s 30th birthday, can you set her a task?’
I reflected a lot, I thought a lot on my 50th birthday. It has been one of the most important birthdays in my life, not in terms of celebration but in terms of retrospect.
At her birthday, my seven-year-old daughter will say that she wants these big cakes and certain expensive toys as presents, and I can’t say no to her. It would just break my heart. But when I was little, for birthdays we just played outside and we were happy if we got any cake.
I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he’s made of sugar.
Fans are always going out of their way and doing so much, be it my birthday or any festival or occasion or most of the time nothing at all and there couldn’t be a better way than connecting with them personally and giving them access to my world.
I did drama at school and when I was doubling Xena, one time for my birthday mom and dad bought me an acting course ’cause I’ve always liked the performance side of anything.
Presents don’t really mean much to me. I don’t want to sound mawkish, but – it was the realization that I have a great many people in my life who really love me, and who I really love.
I love the big fresh starts, the clean slates like birthdays and new years, but I also really like the idea that we can get up every morning and start over.
I was fired by ‘America’s Next Top Model’ on my birthday.
The first comic book I ever read was an issue of ‘Legion of Super-Heroes’ where the earth was surrounded by all of these chains. I remember the cover; I got it at a birthday party.
All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.
I like birthday cake. It’s so symbolic. It’s a tempting symbol to load with something more complicated than just ‘Happy birthday!’ because it’s this emblem of childhood and a happy day.
I actually visit the temple every day but I genuinely don’t understand the importance that people give to their birthdays or any special day, be it a festival or a birthday.
I met my brother when I was a month shy of my second birthday – he came into this world in style. I believe my father popped champagne in the hospital corridors and made sure all the nurses got a sip.
Prince Philip had formally ‘retired’ in the summer of 2017, a couple of months after his 96th birthday, because the Queen encouraged him to do so. She wanted to stop him ‘pushing himself all the time’. She had become anxious about him.
I can remember the three restaurant experiences of my childhood. All I wanted to do on my birthday was to go to the Automat in New York… but I don’t know if you consider that a real restaurant.
I would recommend ‘Lesson Of The Evil’ to be given as a DVD gift on a child’s 15th birthday. In Japan, children under 15 are not allowed to watch it. Plus, ‘Lesson Of The Evil’ is one film where the older you get, the more you will be able to understand and enjoy the film.
For my 50th birthday, I got ahold of a new print of ‘Saturday Night Fever.’ I see it much more as a tough coming-of-age movie than as a disco story.
My mom’s always asking me for hits and stolen bases and home runs and different things on Mother’s Day and her birthday.
I didn’t start auditioning until my 10th birthday when I auditioned for ‘Matilda’ The Musical in London! It was actually the first time I realized that it was a career I could pursue.
I sing a little bit. I got a guitar for my 16th birthday.
Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.
I threw my son, Brandon, a rave for his birthday and I fully set it up like a crazy rave with lights and sound, me and my partner DJ’d – I got Mix Master Mike from the Beastie Boys to come DJ for a bit.
Oh yes, my best birthday gift was when my dad gifted me my first car in college. It was a Maruti Swift. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. It was so much fun, as I could completely show it off to my friends that I have my own car now and not my dad’s car.
My first recognition of age setting in was exactly on my 36th birthday. I have no idea why, on this day of all days, I looked in the mirror and realized my face no longer looked young.
Life is all about balance, and there are certain times of the year – birthday, anniversary, holidays – that are meant to be enjoyed without guilt. That being said, Thanksgiving is a meal – it’s not a Thanksgiving day, and it’s not a Thanksgiving week.
To give somebody your time is the biggest gift you can give.
I’m really not the party type. I more like to have friends over at the house and chill. I’ve never been the super party type. But for the 18th birthday, you got to party. And then 21 is going to be even bigger.
How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?
We Kapoors are very family-minded people. For us only family is important and we make it a point to attend each other’s birthday parties and special occasions.
That’s the great thing about New Year’s, you get to be a year older. For me, that wasn’t such a joke, because my birthday was always around this time. When I was a kid, my father used to tell me that everybody was celebrating my birthday. That’s what the trees are all about.
My mom FedExes a red velvet cake she makes from scratch to me every birthday.
I wore a $30 vintage wedding dress for my 8th birthday in an underground jazz club in Seattle. This was what I wanted.
We’ve all seen those spoiled little brats that end up being given everything and on their 17th birthday get a Ferrari. That whole thing I just can’t bear it.
If I could be doing anything, I’d be laying on the floor in my birthday suit eating junk food and watching something dumb on TV.
I was put on a pony as a kid at some birthday party when you’re all led around.
An army environment is very protected, a walled city kind of environment, where everybody has the same income, you have the same birthday parties, you are given return gifts – everything is the same. Everybody is moving up at the same pace.
Every five years, I like to do a big birthday party. I had my 45th birthday with 75 friends in Marrakesh, Morocco.
As he approached his 28th birthday in February 1840, Dickens knew himself to be famous, successful and tired. He needed a rest, and he made up his mind to keep the year free of the pressure of producing monthly installments of yet another long novel.
I like working on my birthday, so I always do.
People give one another things that can’t be gift wrapped.
I think my first album was a gift for my birthday and a Faith Hill album; I loved her.
When I was young and it was someone’s birthday, I didn’t have the money to buy nice presents so I would take my mom’s camera and make a movie parody for whoever’s birthday it was. When I’d show it them, they’d die laughing. That reaction was a high for me, and I loved that feeling.
The great children’s author and illustrator Shirley Hughes marks her 90th birthday by appearing as Michael Berkeley’s guest in ‘Private Passions’.
I’m a humungous Browns fan. My 30th birthday was actually at the Browns’ stadium.
I can’t make eye contact when people sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me.
My mum likes to remind me of the birthday treat I asked for when I was just 13… and that was for them to hire a stretch limo for my birthday when we travelled to L.A.
My poor kids have accepted that being dropped off late to birthday parties, practices, and yes, school, is just part of the large family package.
Since graduation, I have measured time in 4-by-5-inch pieces of paper, four days on the left and three on the right. Every social engagement, interview, reading, flight, doctor’s appointment, birthday and dry-cleaning reminder has been handwritten between metal loops.
There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents, and only one for birthday presents, you know.
I can put my legs behind my head and sing ‘Happy Birthday.’ Because that’s something that me and my friends used to do when we were in gymnastics class as kids, and I can still do it. I was doing it since I was 8 and 9. They used to call me Gumby. Very bendy.
The first guitar I ever got was for my 13th birthday.
Why, on my mother’s birthday, am I thinking about ‘Father Knows Best?’ At our house, mother knew best at least as often as father did, but then the title of the old sitcom, a homogenized portrait of American family life, was meant to be slightly sardonic.
My mum’s from a very rural village in Nigeria, she grew up in a war, and for her it was really important that my brothers and I knew how to fend for ourselves. My dad bought me a Swiss army knife for my 13th birthday and we used to go camping and he showed me how to light fires.
I had been offered a Hollywood contract before my 18th birthday. It gave me the spark I needed.
A gift, with a kind countenance, is a double present.
I want to say that probably 24 hours after I told CBS that I was stepping down at my 65th birthday, I was already regretting it. And I regretted it every day since.
To me – old age is always ten years older than I am.
I don’t go into a fight mad. I go into a fight like it’s my birthday. I love what I’m doing.
My mom won’t let me buy high-fashion stuff unless it’s TK Maxx or a birthday occasion.
In the time of social media, I get lots of wishes. It’s overwhelming! What makes the day most special is the love I get from my fans, who try to make the occasion extra special. Almost 50 days before my birthday, they have started making plans. In fact, I have been receiving letters, too.
We all have special numbers in our lives, and 4 is that for me. It’s the day I was born. My mother’s birthday, and a lot of my friends’ birthdays, are on the fourth; April 4 is my wedding date.
It is really a great feeling to win a World Cup on your birthday.
My daughter learned to say, ‘They’re not even trying to cover!’ before her second birthday.
Only then, approaching my fortieth birthday, I made philosophy my life’s work.
I was never the kind to throw parties for my birthday. I remember how embarrassed I used to be when they’d make me cut a cake on the sets, and the unit would sing ‘Happy Birthday.’
I remember it was Dr. Seuss’ birthday, and I got to read to the little ones and that was just an awesome experience. I remember when I was a young knucklehead and having that access to an after-school program in my community. It’s something that hits home to me and something I wanted to always be a part of.
I hate birthdays. I hate birthday parties. I hate them. I don’t know what it is, anybody’s only got to come wafting near me with a piece of cake with a candle on and I break out in hives.
I’ve never really made a big deal out of my birthday.
I was in my mid-teens when someone gave me a copy of ‘Pears Encyclopaedia of Myth and Legends’ as a birthday present. It sat on my shelves for many months before I looked at it. When I did, I couldn’t stop reading it.
We Indians are musical- and dance-minded people. If a child is born or on a wedding, birthday, we dance. But when a song starts unreasonably, it irritates me.
As I approached my 18th birthday and prepared to enter military service in World War II, I was recommended to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood.
I had a birthday one night on a farm we were shooting on. I walked into the tent, and there were 150 people waiting for me, all wearing masks of my face.
Even when I was in Dubai, I used to host small birthday parties, events, and lots more to make money of my own to fulfil my wish to become an actor. I didn’t take any money from my parents to fulfil my dream.
As I approached my 95th birthday, I was burdened to write a book that addressed the epidemic of ‘easy believism.’ There is a mindset today that if people believe in God and do good works, they are going to Heaven.
The question on my husband’s birthday is always, What do you get for the man who has nothing?
I would watch ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ and borrow a few lines here and there from guests like Red Buttons and Buddy Hackett to create a routine. Then I started getting invited to do political functions like the governor’s birthday ball or mayor’s dinner.
Plays have a celebratory nature that no other form has. Theater always meant celebration, a birthday, a reward for good grades. I felt at home in a theater. I loved being part of an audience. All the rules – the audience has to see the play on a certain date at a certain time in a certain place in a certain seat.
There are times I have to diet 16 weeks at a go, and I had to miss out on stuff I love, like burgers and birthday parties.
I get bashful in the spotlight. Even at home or at a birthday party, I hate that stuff.
My younger sister, Clover arrived three days before my seventh birthday and I wanted to sell her. I’d had my mother, stepfather, and nanny Maureen, all to myself, and suddenly there was this bonny baby with green grass eyes that everyone adored.
The more Mommy blogs going nuclear over playground etiquette I read and birthday parties of glazed adults munching cupcakes like demoralized zombies I attend, I realize this is what my friends who conceived before me meant by, ‘You just won’t care.’
Given the importance of Washington, outsiders probably have an unrealistic perspective on how large the city is. The fact is, Washington D.C. is a small town, and most everyone knows most everyone else. That person of the other party who you despise will someday be at your daughter’s birthday party.
By the time I was seven, I did a sonnet at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre for Shakespeare’s birthday because my dad had been at the first season of the Globe and was friends with the artistic director. Somehow, that lead to me doing a sonnet!
I have friends who hide in their bedroom for three days every time they have another birthday. That’s what brings the wrinkles! I didn’t care when I turned 30 or 40 or 50.
I like to do special things for people. Any time someone has a birthday, I make them a really special cake that they all seem to love – it’s a Coca-Cola cake.
I like spending time with my family and friends on my birthday.
All I watch is the Food Network. I took a cheesemaking class a few weeks ago, and I told my family and friends to only get me kitchen stuff on my birthday. I’m into every kind of cookbook and anything by Anthony Bourdain. I’d love to own a restaurant if I could find the right chef.
I think I’ve wanted to be an actress since the day I was born. I even asked my parents for an agent for my seventh birthday!
My life is better with every year of living it.
In the Mexican culture, we never miss a baptism, a birthday, a baby shower, a wedding shower, a wedding. You must show up. Otherwise, you’ll be in big trouble.
My grandma spelled my name wrong until she died. Like literally, birthday cards, mail, everything.
When I see the kind of passion Sir Alex shows, it is hard to believe he is about to celebrate his 71st birthday.
More and more, there are things in my life that I find hard to say. Like, ‘David Bowie and Lorde were at my birthday party.’ She’s a phenomenal spirit.
What makes ‘Maybach Music V’ so special was, of course, I put the album out celebrating my daughter’s birthday as well, and DeJ Loaf is her favorite artist. So ‘Maybach Music V,’ I wanted a real airy type of feel. Just a real slow vibe to it that’s also going to surprise my daughter. So that’s real special.
If you look over the years, the styles have changed – the clothes, the hair, the production, the approach to the songs. The icing to the cake has changed flavors. But if you really look at the cake itself, it’s really the same.
Mum loves me being famous! She is so excited and proud, as she had me so young and couldn’t support me, so I am living her dream, it’s sweeter for both of us. It’s her 40th birthday soon and I’m going to buy her 40 presents.
I’ve never hosted a party in my life, not even my own birthday party. I’d feel really uncomfortable saying, ‘Hey everybody, let’s celebrate me!’ But I’m not antisocial. I don’t hate people.
Having a birthday around the holidays was never easy and, with every successive year, it felt more and more as if celebrating my birthday got thrown into the December holiday mix as an afterthought.
In December of 1990, just before my eighth birthday, I left China for the United States. My father was a political dissident, and after he was released from prison, we joined my mother in a little town in the mountains of Utah. It was quite a change from my hometown of Shanghai, a city of 25 million people.
If every year is a marble, how many marbles do you have left? How many sunrises, how many opportunities to rise to the full stature of your being?
The Governors Ball is like a big birthday party, and all these stars are like excited kids running around – ‘Oooo, look at my pretty new dress!’ And what’s the best, most fun surprise at a birthday party? When the cake comes out!
I share a birthday with Max Beesley and James Nesbitt.
Every day, every birthday candle I blow out, every penny I throw over my shoulder in a wishing well, every time my daughter says, ‘Let’s make a wish on a star,’ there’s one thing I wish for: wisdom.
There’s definitely something special about a working birthday, it’s the perfect way to bring in the new birthday year!
I’m not a big birthday guy; I never have been.
My parents were dishonest people. If it was my birthday, I knew my mother took me to the K-Mart and she stole my toy. She’d put it in the shopping cart and we’d walk out. I was raised with that.
I’m a Virgo and I’m more – I don’t want to say ‘negative’ – but I’m the girl who thinks no one’s coming to my birthday party, no one’s buying my clothes, no one’s reading my book, no one’s watching my show – that’s just how I think.
I don’t set up screenings. I can barely plan my kid’s birthday party.
For Tim Burton’s birthday I gave him a rainbow beetle. He loved it!
Since the day I got married, I never got to plan my birthday.
When I was little I thought, isn’t it nice that everybody celebrates on my birthday? Because it’s July 4th.
When Oscar Niemeyer died on December 5, 2012, ten days before his 105th birthday, he was universally regarded as the very last of the twentieth century’s major architectural masters, an astonishing survivor whose most famous accomplishment, Brasilia, was the climactic episode of utopian High Modern urbanism.
I hate birthdays. I thought that I only hated my own birthday, and then I realized that I hate my children’s birthdays too.
My son told me to stop singing ‘Happy Birthday’ when he was 4.
On my 14th birthday, my grandfather and my grandmother gave me the best birthday present ever: a drafting table that I have worked on ever since.
To my surprise, my 70s are nicer than my 60s and my 60s than my 50s, and I wouldn’t wish my teens and 20s on my enemies.
Every year on my birthday, I start a new playlist titled after my current age so I can keep track of my favorite songs of the year as a sort of musical diary because I am a teenage girl.
My father was a shaman. He told me that time doesn’t exist. He didn’t use a clock. He didn’t know when my birthday was.
I quit high school on my birthday. It was my senior year and I didn’t see the point. This was 1962, and I was ready to make music.
As a child, I always chose a false nose and some face paint and a wig for my birthday.
I was at a birthday party and a truck backed up and the wheels ran over my chest. I lost part of my lung and my liver.
I grew up going to bakeries in Tel Aviv; that’s where we got our birthday cakes, they were always European baking and butter creams. We have such good baking in Israel, and we have the Diaspora of Jews from all over, and we learned early on to adapt and absorb flavors from all over.
Prince Charles was once obsessed with a particular beauty, Anna Wallace, and couldn’t understand why she walked out on him after he spent the evening dancing with Camilla at the Queen Mother’s 80th birthday party.
I trained to be a priest – started to. I went to seminary school when I was 11. I wanted to be a priest, but when they told me I could never have sex, not even on my birthday, I changed my mind.
Most people tell you there are certain moments you should celebrate in life: for example, the weekend coming, so you should party on a Friday. Or your birthday or New Year’s Eve. But what if you’re excited about being alive every day? Can’t you be in that celebratory state every moment you’re not dead?
For my 9th birthday, my only wish was to eat like a farmer boy. I had devoured ‘The Little House on the Prairie’ book series and wanted to be like Almanzo Wilder, the protagonist of ‘Farmer Boy,’ one of the later installments in the ‘Little House’ series.
On a royal birthday every house must fly a flag, or the owner would be dragged to a police station and be fined twenty-five rubles.
I don’t pay attention to the number of birthdays. It’s weird when I say I’m 53. It just is crazy that I’m 53. I think I’m very immature. I feel like a kid. That’s why my back goes out all the time, because I completely forget I can’t do certain things anymore – like doing the plank for 10 minutes.
My birthday is generally a very quiet affair.
I spent my 40th birthday on the stage of the Palladium in ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.’
I started running around my 30th birthday. I wanted to lose weight; I didn’t anticipate the serenity. Being in motion, suddenly my body was busy and so my head could work out some issues I had swept under a carpet of wine and cheese. Good therapy, that’s a good run.
The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.
You are only part of the film industry if you are doing well, let me tell you. You will be invited to parties and flowers will reach you on your birthday. When you are not doing well, you are really an outcast.
Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.
I was in kidney failure. I ended up having a kidney transplant on my 21st birthday.
I have given myself a Tesla for my 60th birthday.
Even when I was a kid, I had a good thing with kids. To this day, if I go to a birthday party with one of my kids, I swear to you, I am so much happier hanging out with my kids and their friends than talking to the grown-ups.
I filed a brief as a friend of the court in the U. of Michigan to keep affirmative action at the U. of Michigan, which I attended the law school. And I was one of the original sponsors of making the Martin Luther King birthday a federal holiday.
At 91, every day is a birthday.
I’m a big fan of Kurt Cobain. I put a picture of him holding a gun on my Instagram for his birthday. He’s definitely one of my favorite rock artists.
My mum, she loves a bargain hunt. You can’t buy her anything expensive. I remember I bought her a diamond bracelet for her birthday. I was being a nice son! She told me to take it back.
I married two weeks after my 18th birthday, far too young, and by the time I was 23 I was a single mother of three small children, Sean, Daniel and Victoria, living in a prefab house.
