Music has always been in my family, but it was mainly keyboards. I learned to play classical piano, but when I first heard the amazing bass guitar of James Jamerson, who played on all the big Motown hits of the ’60s and ’70s, I knew bass guitar was my instrument.
In 2003, being Virginia Player of the Year was an amazing feeling because I think that was the moment I realized I could actually, really go far in my sport, and I was actually, really good at something. At that moment, I knew that I could play at a high level.
I skipped kindergarten because I was reading at a pretty high level. That’s a weird and cocky thing to say, but I was real sharp, and I knew that early on.
My dream job growing up was always to be an artist. It wasn’t even that I would be a rapper or singer; I just knew I would be a public figure.
The worst tragedy that could have befallen me was my success. I knew right away that I was through – cast out.
I was so embarrassed about mispronouncing words. I just knew how to smile.
We all knew this. We all knew that it would take more time than any of us want to dig ourselves out of this hole created by this economic crisis.
Our Founding Fathers knew that without Second Amendment freedom, all of our freedoms could be in jeopardy.
I knew there were, in myself, the souls of millions of people who lived centuries ago; not just people but animals, plants, the elements, things, even, matter. All of these exist in me.
When I signed for Barca, I knew their playing style was suited to my game.
I played American Legion ball starting when I was 14. But I didn’t catch until I was 17. I was 75-3 as a high school pitcher, but it was like everybody knew that I was supposed to be a catcher. When the scouts would come around, and I was pitching, they’d make me take infield practice so the scouts could watch me throw.
Everyone around me does music, so I just kind of knew. It wasn’t some magical moment. There were loads of other things I wanted to do. I wanted to be a lawyer, for example, because I just love arguing, but it wasn’t on the cards.
I went in to Reading with the full backing of the chairman, who was great to me, and I got 20 games. Even though it was a three-year project, and I was the guy who knew the club more than anyone, I got the sack after 20 games. Funnily enough, it had just started to pick up, but they lost their patience.
What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
Everyone on ‘The Goonies’ and everyone on ‘Lord Of The Rings’ knew that we were a part of something that was going to be big.
When I write about Mickey Haller as the Lincoln lawyer, I totally see Matthew McConaughey because he took that character when that character was still fairly new to me – only two or three years old – when I knew McConaughey was going to play him. He’s also the same age, the right age, in comparison to the book.
My big break was really Liz Meriwether saw me in a movie called ‘Paper Heart’ and really liked it, and then saw me in a movie called ‘Ceremony’ because she knew Max Winkler and said, ‘I want you to be in ‘No Strings Attached,’ but you gotta audition for it.’ From that it was easier for her to get me in ‘New Girl.’
My dad is Dominican, my mother’s Puerto Rican, and I got into bachata at the age of 10 or 11. When I started listening, it had a reputation for being music for hick people. I thought that had to be changed. I was born and raised in the Bronx, and I knew you make something cool if you’re cool.
Our fathers knew that the flag was never intended to protect any man who wanted to assail it.
I always dreamed of being an entertainer. So, my whole life to some extent, or from the age that I can remember onwards, I knew I was going to have to make some sort of attempt at being noticed for being funny.
With ‘Strictly,’ I am mentally and physically knackered: everything aches. I knew it would be hard, but I never thought it would be this tough.
I knew from the age of seven that I was meant to be a writer.
Since my childhood I always knew that India was a land of scarcity but this has changed ever since the BJP started ruling our country.
When I started out, there were a lot of things I knew I couldn’t do, and a lot of things I only found out I couldn’t do by going and doing it. And no-one was watching, and nobody cared.
Honestly, being a 5’11” quarterback, not too many people think that you can play in the National Football League. And so for me, you know, I knew that my height doesn’t define my skill set, you know? I believed in my talent. I believed in what God gave me. I believed in the knowledge that I have of the game.
I grew up with park jams. That’s how I knew about rap… The local MCs would grab the mic and start rapping. I just used to be so in awe and fascinated and like, ‘Wow, this is amazing!’ But I would never, ever touch the mic. Heck no.
I feel like the Knicks drafted me because they knew what I could do.
So once I thought of the villain with a sense of humor, I began to think of a name and the name “the Joker” immediately came to mind. There was the association with the Joker in the deck of cards, and I probably yelled literally, ‘Eureka!’ because I knew I had the name and the image at the same time.
As a child I knew almost nothing, nothing beyond what I had picked up in my grandmother’s house. All children, I suppose, come into the world like that, not knowing who they are.
I’d always wanted to be an actress, and suddenly I knew that learning to control my facial muscles was one of the best assets I could have as a performer.
When we first broke into that forbidden box in the other dimension, we knew we had discovered something as surprising and powerful as the New World when Columbus came stumbling onto it.
Telling the entire world and his dog how good a manager I was. I knew I was the best but I should have said nowt and kept the pressure off ‘cos they’d have worked it out for themselves.
When I was growing up, and other people I knew were getting into trouble, I was somewhere in a deer stand or going to bed early so I could be up before dawn to hunt turkeys. My love of the outdoors kept me solid.
I remember burying a girl fourteen years of age who had died with a ruptured appendix… I buried a good many people that I knew, some of whom I loved.
From the time I was a kid, I always knew something was going to happen to me. Didn’t know exactly what.
I don’t know if this is the kind of retrospective analysis that people are fond of applying to their work or actions, but it feels like I knew I was going to be famous and I knew that an element of that would be traumatic, so that if I could make myself something big and otherworldly, it would be a kind of defence.
My biggest inspiration was always early Iron Maiden, because it was the only band I knew for some time, and, as we all know, Iron Maiden is great.
The potential success that could come with signing with a major label didn’t quite outweigh how important it was for me to make my music the way I knew it needed to be made.
Experts always know everything but the fine points. When I took my citizenship exams, no one there knew how the White House came to be called the White House.
But I knew if I ran I’d never be able to sing, so I had to take my punishment.
Love to his soul gave eyes; he knew things are not as they seem. The dream is his real life; the world around him is the dream.
I pledged to become the world’s greatest expert in a field I knew nothing about.
The only thing that I discovered very early on is that, even though we might change schools and cities and towns and states, the books in the library were the same. They had the same covers. They had the same characters. I could go and visit those people in the library as if I knew them.
Democracy requires information. Plato knew that informed decision-making requires knowledge.
I didn’t care about that because I’m not a diplomatic person to begin with. I just went along with things and did what I wanted to do because I knew they had to shoot their 12 pages a day. And when they realized that I didn’t alter the text they really didn’t mind what I did.
I knew the big following ‘Stranger Things’ had, and I really liked the show, but even if I hadn’t known what the show was, I still really related to the character, and I really liked the material.
I knew that I did not have to buy into society’s notion that I had to be handsome and healthy to be happy. I was in charge of my ‘spaceship’ and it was my up, my down. I could choose to see this situation as a setback or as a starting point. I chose to begin life again.
People like Frank Zappa and Bryan Ferry knew we could pick and choose from the history of music, stick things together looking for friction and energy. They were more like playwrights; they invented characters and wrote a life around them.
I had a very good job in corporate America, but I quickly knew that was not how I was wired.
Computers are scary. They’re nightmares to fix, lose our stuff, and, on occasion, they crash, producing the blue screen of death. Steve Jobs knew this. He knew that computers were bulky and hernia-inducing and Darth Vader black. He understood the value of declarative design.
Lucio Tan Group has had an historic interest in education. From my days as a struggling working student, I knew that education is the key to escape from the clutches of poverty.
