I was born in very sorry circumstances. Both of my parents were very sorry.

Parents are the last people on earth who ought to have children.

If at first you don't succeed blame your parents.

Because of their size parents may be difficult to discipline properly.

I can tell you dearest friend that if it became known how much friendship love and a world of human and spiritual references I have smuggled into these three movements the adherents of programme music - should there be any left - would go mad with joy.

My parents and librarians along the way taught me about the space between words about the margins where so many juicy moments of life and spirit and friendship could be found. In a library you could find miracles and truth and you might find something that would make you laugh so hard that you get shushed in the friendliest way.

As a child I was given the freedom to explore my passion for acting but I also grew up in a home where there were a lot of rules. I didn't have 'yes' parents.

My parents came from Russia and suddenly they wound up in Boston Massachusetts Brookline Massachusetts and they felt the sun rose and set on Franklin Delano Roosevelt's backside because he meant so much to them. This was freedom. This was something totally different from the Russia they had left.

The schools would fail through their silence the Church through its forgiveness and the home through the denial and silence of the parents. The new generation has to hear what the older generation refuses to tell it.

I'm very proud of my Nigerian heritage. I wasn't fortunate enough to be raised in a heavy Nigerian environment because my parents were always working. My father was with D.C. Cabs and my mother worked in fast food and was a nurse.

Sometimes I even now feel like a stranger in my country. But I knew there would be problems because I had seen the world as a skater. And now? A lot of people in eastern Germany have lost jobs rents went up food costs went up unemployment went to 20 percent. Freedom is good but it is not easy.

My parents owned a soul food diner. It inspired me to go to culinary school.

I travel around and hear from so many kids. Their parents say they were always very picky but they watch the show and they want to try stuff. The show is entertainment but I think it has done so much for the public perception of what food can be.

Heads know that failing to invest in good nutritious food is a false economy and parents won't tolerate reconstituted turkey being put back on the menu.

I wanted to be a great white hunter a prospector for gold or a slave trader. But then when I was eight my parents sent me to a boarding school in South Africa. It was the equivalent of a British public school with cold showers beatings and rotten food. But what it also had was a library full of books.

Food was always a big part of my life. My grandfather was one of 14 kids and his parents had a pasta factory so as a kid he and his siblings would sell pasta door to door. After he became a movie producer he opened up De Laurentiis Food Stores - one in Los Angeles and one in New York.

As the proud father of two teens and past Chairman to the Presidents Council on Physical Fitness and Sports I am committed to educating parents and especially young people on ways to live a long healthy and active life.