Mum Quotations

I love drama - mum calls me a Drama Queen!

I love the fact that little kids think I'm a witch. A mum might come over and say 'I'm sorry to disturb you, but my daughter thinks you're in 'Harry Potter.' I'll say 'That's cool' and take the kid aside and say, 'I'm a witch. If you don't listen to your mum, I'm going to haunt you!' It's brilliant. I can scare kids into doing their homework.

I definitely want to be a mum. Lots of my friends are having babies, but I don't know quite when to do it. My mum says, 'There's never a right time; you've just got to get on with it'.

I'd heard Joyce Grenfell on the radio, and when Mum gave me a book of her comic routines, I just loved it. Me and my sister shared a bedroom, and every night I'd drive her mad with my version of 'George, Don't Do That' about people we knew at school.

I remember seeing 'Aladdin' when I was five or six and loving it. I looked at the big screen and said to my mum, 'Whatever this Genie guy does, I want to do.' Mum said I couldn't be a genie, but that Robin Williams, who did the voice-over in the film, was an actor. So I said, 'OK, then, I want to be an actor.'

When I was younger, my mum used to put fresh flowers in bath water instead of rubber ducks, and since then I had a love of perfumes.

My mum died of leukemia when I was in high school - she lost her life at 40. It was very hard, and I didn't do that much in Chicago after that. I actually sat around and didn't do anything for three years. I didn't know what I wanted to do anymore because my everything was gone. I was a mama's boy, and I had to turn into a man real quick.

When I was eight, my mum found me humming to myself and scribbling on a scrap of paper. When she asked me what I was doing, I got shy. I was writing a Christmas song, and I had never shared my music with anyone before. Reluctantly, I sang it for her... and she loved it. Of course she did - she's my mum.

I remember clearly watching a 'Sooty Show' at a theatre and telling my mum I wanted to be up with the puppets, not in the audience.

My mum took me to the ballet at three, and that was the only time I sat still, with jaw open, mesmerised. She brought me home, and I wouldn't stop dancing.

I think there's always interest in how the other half live - I see myself as a down-to-earth Essex mum who just happens to be living this very glamorous life in Beverly Hills.

The feather was a thing, when I was a kid, we used to find feathers around the house, and whenever we found them, my mum used to say it was my nan leaving them around for us to find, so that was quite sweet.

I've been wearing jeans all my life. I remember my first denim as a kid because my mum used to buy me OshKosh overalls.

Mum left school at 15, and after a few years of modelling and dating jazz musicians, was married by 21 to my father, Mike Taylor, a journalist on the 'Daily Mirror.' They had my brother and me pretty quickly and had split up by the time I was two. I don't really have any memories of them as a couple.

I'd love to look like my mum when I am her age. She taught ballet for years, and my attitude to exercise and fitness has definitely been influenced by her. She's 84 now, and I've watched how well she has aged, and a lot of that is to do with her fantastic posture.

My aunt put my cousins into a children's modelling agency, then my mum did it with us. Me and my sister got a few TV adverts, which was good pocket money. A director saw photos of me and asked me to do a short film.

I try to stay away from processed foods. I eat lean meats and get as many veggies as I can on my plate, so when mum calls me on a Sunday, I can tell her I'm eating enough veggies! I love pasta, but I don't eat carbs a whole lot, and I love fruit.

Money was tight and Mum used to do two jobs to support us.

My teacher told my mum, 'I think William has dyspraxia,' and Mum asked what that meant. She said, 'Well, if I put a chair in the middle of the room and asked every child in the class to walk around it, William would be the only child in the class to walk into it.' Mum was like, 'Yeah, that's my boy'.

My mum is, like, my biggest fan, and she's the one who will basically do all the publicity for me back home... She'll constantly be talking to me saying, 'Dan, what's going on? We've heard this. Tell us about it! Dad wants to know!' And so I'll give them as much information as I can, and Mom and Dad are both my biggest fans.

My love of music comes from as long as I remember. I begged my mum to learn piano for a year when I was 4; she wanted to make sure I was serious, and I wanted to be Chuck Berry when I grew up! We were a very musical family; my mum would play guitar, and her, my dad and aunt would sing and harmonize!

My father died in France, and my sisters and I went over with my mum to bring back his body. I remember going to the funeral parlour in France and being given a laminated menu of coffins, and thinking, surely there is an ice cream at the back of here!

As my mum still candidly says, I was the runt of the litter.

Both of my parents had a change of career. My mum was a nurse, and now she's a college lecturer.

I remember being about eight and watching 'Pollyanna' with Hayley Mills. I looked at my mum and said, 'Mum, I want to be Pollyanna.' She said, 'You're going to have to make yourself cry if you want to be an actress.' So I turned my head away, and when I turned it back I was in floods of tears.

My dad's an ex-policeman, and my mum is a sales representative, and they haven't got the acting bug. Bless them.

My mum has always said I am too hard on myself. But I have always been like that and it has always helped me. After matches I focus only on what I did wrong. Never what I did well.

I found it hard being a full-time mum and take my hat off to anyone who can do it.

I was so sure I wanted to be a novelist. I would spend hours and hours every day writing. Little stories about nothing in particular. I recall one about someone with an illness. But my dedication wasn't really healthy, and it reached the point where I wasn't sleeping. My mum would tell me, 'You need to go outside to get some fresh air.'

I had a complicated life until I was 25. I was born in Bristol and was brought up by my mum and my stepfather in Edinburgh. He introduced me to books.

My mum was a wonderful mother. She died, aged 80, of Alzheimer's disease, which was dreadful to watch. I remember she said to me: 'Believe in yourself because no one else is going to do it for you.' I'm sure a lot of my success is due to her words of advice.

My mum still says the biggest mistake I ever made was not being Benedict Lloyd-Hughes. She's very upset. But the only one who calls me Benedict in real life is my granny.

I wanted to emulate my parents - Mum captained India in basketball, and Dad won a bronze in hockey in 1972 Olympics. My focus has always been to achieve excellence whether in the field of tennis, in the corporate field, in the art of acting or in motivating youngsters.

Cinema dominated the Fife coalfield towns. We lived in Lochgelly, but my mum was caught up in Hollywood. She was in love with the style and glamour. Sometimes she would come with me to the cinema in the afternoons, and she would say things like, 'I wouldn't mind a peck with Gregory.'

I always wanted to be a writer, from being a little kid onwards. My dad and my mum both had phases when that was what they did.

It would be nice if I did have a good relationship with my family, and yes, part of me longs to have a mum and dad who love and accept me for who I am. But if they never do, it's OK.

My granny was very concerned that we weren't baptised - Mum had been desperate to escape her own Catholic upbringing. But Granny thought we were blighted. Whenever we turned up at her house, she would flick holy water - from the font she kept by the door - over us, in the hope that it would save us from damnation.

Mum had regular mental tests with her specialist, but because of her academic background, she became brilliant at manipulating them.

I hope I'm very similar to my mum because she is a fantastic mother. She was driven as well as being incredibly protective and caring, and I think that is important.

The old man sold beer after hours on weekends. And that was something that he probably did to top up his earnings as a truck driver. Mum was the traditional housewife. Loving, caring, sharing - always the keynotes of the family.

I make a wonderful cure-all called Four Thieves, just like my mum did. It's cider vinegar, 36 cloves of garlic and four herbs, representing four looters of plague victims' homes in 1665 who had their sentences reduced from burning at the stake to hanging for explaining the recipe that kept them from catching the plague.

My mum is incredibly leftwing, and my dad was quite rightwing - no surprise they didn't stay together - and so I had two very conflicting political opinions as a child, neither of which I was interested in taking any notice of, being a sort of little reprobate.

I don't want to be a great executive without being a great mum and a great wife. I don't want to look back and say I wish I had done things differently. 'Balance' is a really big word for me.

My mum used to work for the Chanel store in Paris, so for me, I've always been very familiar with the brand because of her. I remember when I was very, very, little, our flat had Chanel shoe boxes, makeup, and some jackets.

I think being a mum gives you extra qualities. I'm more feisty, fiercely protective and less selfish. The main trait I want to instill in my kids is kindness. I think it's the most important thing. If you're kind, you'll go a long way.

I was out with my mum when a man started screaming at me: 'Georgia Groome. I love you.' Mum and I just looked at each other for a split second - and then ran away as fast as we could.

I've had to ban my mum from coming to see me play. She gets so nervous before any show. I've always got a few nerves but she's so much worse than me. You'd think she'd be able to handle that kind of situation. After all, she is a concert pianist.

My mum has told me that I have to work with Antonio Banderas just so that she can meet him and try and marry him.

My mum is my beauty icon, because she represents what I think beauty is.

My mum wouldn't have had any time for fantasy stuff; she's more practical.

I get a lot of single mum roles - 'It's a Free World' turned out well, so people thought, 'She can be a single mum, Kierston can do that. Or live in a council house - she can do that.'

I'm sure my mum was a huge influence on my wanting to be an actress: just seeing her doing it, seeing her love it, caring about it. Invest in something, take it seriously and be so wonderful.

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.

My mum is totally crazy for fashion still. Her job was as a laundress, but I loved it when she would dress up in her red suit with a mini jacket and flared trousers and get her wig fixed at the hairdresser's - it was the time of wigs - and we would go shopping.

My first role was an angel in the nursery nativity. I spotted my mum halfway through and shouted over someone else's lines to ask if she liked my costume. I've learnt not to do that now.

I went through a stage of writing my cramped hand in tiny books. My two sisters and I did have our Bronte period. My mum is from Yorkshire, and we would go up to the Moors. It tapped into our romantic visions of ourselves.

I don't like being weak in front of my mum or anyone for that matter. I don't like crying.

My mum has lived in Australia for 22 years now, and we have a rocky relationship. But at the same time it's one I want to maintain. I need her to be my mum. The relationship took a lot of rebuilding.

When two people break up, it's all about them; they can't see anyone else. And the people getting smashed to bits are the kids. Then you're getting torn - your mum wants you, your dad wants you. You just get shredded. It has a long-lasting effect as well.

My mum always liked poetry, and she had pictures on the wall, so there was this visual stuff around.

I remember when 'Grease' came out, I used to force my mum to try and grease my hair back, and it was never long enough, and literally I'd be screaming at her, 'Do it. Just do it!'.

I grew up with just my mum and sister, so I respect women a lot.

I don't like feeling vulnerable. I think my mum and dad's divorce affected me more than I let on.

If I could uninvent anything, I would uninvent Hitler's mum, guns and broccoli.

Losing a parent is a hard thing... I often sit here and think it would be great if mum and dad were alive and had a chance to see their grandkids grow up.

I think I'm far too hopeful and trusting. That's something I got from my mum.

My mum Mary was always a bright, confident and fiercely independent lady.

I got into hip hop from my uncle; he was always playing us Kool G Rap and Big Daddy Kane. He was a bad boy, and my mum was not really happy that I was hanging out with him.

My poor mum had a lot of problems with me around that time. I was young but I'd been working for years, so if she asked me to clean my room I'd say, 'You can't tell me what to do after I've worked a 12-hour day.' It gave me a power that no one that age should have.

I was fourteen, watching 'The Princess Bride' for the 254321th time, captivated by Wesley and Inigo dueling on the cliff-top. I had never held a sword in my life, but I phoned my mum and said, 'I want to learn to fence!'

I know I can count on my mum and brother to be there for me through good and bad times.

I was often looked at as a leper by kids at school because I was a Jehovah's Witness. They didn't like it - you were 'weird'. And on Saturday mornings, you'd be knocking at their doors. I remember standing there with my mum and dad, thinking, 'Oh my God, I know whose door this is, and I'll have to see them on Monday.' It was terrible.

My mum brought me up on her own. All we really had was each other.

I love samosas filled with mincemeat. My mum makes really great ones.

I want to be a young mum and if I didn't have to work I'd have them tomorrow. I'd like three!

I promised my mum that if something did happen to her, although I never thought anything would, I told her that I wouldn't give up on acting until I got my Oscar. This was her dream for me.

I'm afraid that this is me getting on my high horse now but we have yob television, yob newspapers, and funny enough whereas it was my mum and dad, school, police, church who used to set the standards, now it's tabloids and yob television who set the standards by which people live.

My mum told me that grown-ups don't like teenagers, which is the last thing you want to hear when you are one yourself!

I always assumed I'd be a terribly patient mum but it turns out I'm not!

A coach told my mum I had talent and I would make a very good skater.

La Mancha is a very macho, chauvinistic society. I saw very clearly that my life had to be in Madrid, and I liberated myself from my mum and dad after high school.

I used to do a Saturday drama group called Young Blood Theatre Company with school-friends in west London - nothing to do with my mum and dad. A casting director came to pick people out for a new BBC children's series called 'MI High.' She picked me, I auditioned, and I got the job.

My mum had this idea I was going to be this long-haired hippie playing guitar and bought me one when I was 13, but my little brother picked it up instead and was such a natural, he kept it! Io Echo is a band my brother now plays in; they're really good.

My mum was raised Jewish, my dad is very scientifically minded, and my school was vaguely Christian. We sang hymns in school. I liked the hymns bit, but apart from that, I can take it or leave it. So I had lots of different influences when I was younger.

As a working mum, it's really hard to find time in the day to just relax and take a break. I am constantly on the go.

My dad was in the Indian Army. He died in a terrorist attack in Kashmir in 1994. After that, my mum and I settled in Noida. I went to Delhi Public School in Noida and then to Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi University. It was in college that I realised I wanted to be on the stage and in front of the camera.

The only ones I trust really are my Mum and Dad and those who are closest to me.

Mum has always been a huge anti-war activist. She would go off to protest and get arrested. I have her passion, but it is not for politics. I am much more interested in psychology. It's more my job and my natural inclination.

My mum used to tell me to never boil my cabbages twice, and I think it's artistically valid. While I do find myself on similar themes in my books, I try not to repeat myself, and that's something which is all too easy to do in series books.

I definitely take after my dad, looks-wise. But my mum is my greatest inspiration. All the women in my family are amazing. They're hilarious. I love funny people.

I used to go swimming and passed the tennis courts every day, and that's how it started. My mum said, 'Why don't you play tennis in your summer holidays because you have nothing to do except swim for an hour or whatever?,' and that's how I started playing.

My Italian granny and my mother made great spaghetti, but it wasn't a kind of southern Italian, Godfather-esque kind of thing - it was a wonderful, big mixing pot of all kinds of people - when you came home from school and your mum wasn't in, there were lots of people you could go to.

My mum always told me 95 per cent of success was partnering well

Oh, I love Nottingham. I know some people go, 'Oh God, there's not much going off there,' but I like staying in and going round to my mum and dad's for a Sunday roast.

As a kid, I was a dancer in Dick Whittington, Snow White and Cinderella. When I was 14, I played Baby Bear. I had a big head on, and you couldn't see my face. My mum was very disappointed.

My mum and dad were speaking all the time about, 'In Sudan we do this,' and 'In Egypt we do that,' so I was very aware of cultural differences. I was confused growing up; it gave me a feeling of being an outsider watching others. But I think this is good for a writer.

They had asked for me because they wanted a younger girl, but Mum asked if she could bring Kylie along because she didn't want there to be any jealously.

When you're young, no one cares who your parents are, although Mum would arrive to pick me up in her full hair and make-up and fur, and I used to say, 'Can't you just dress normally, like all the other mums?' I wanted her to blend in more, but I've always been really proud of Mum - as proud as she is of me.

I never wanted for anything. We went to Ireland for holidays every year. I was 14 when we first went to Italy. My mum was determined I was going to go to a good school. My mum was an absolute grafter. A real grafter. I got my work ethic from her.

I wanted very badly to be a mum. I'm a very maternal person. But at the point that I met Emilio I was focusing on a career. I never would have thought that I would get married at 21 and much less be a mum by 23.