My mum and dad weren't wealthy people. We used to have pasta every day, meat once a week, fish was once every two weeks, presents only at Christmas and birthday.

On my 30th birthday, all the presents I got were boxes of food. That's what I needed.

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.

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'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.

I get uncomfortable when people give me presents and watch me open them. I don't have birthday parties, because the idea of a group of people singing and looking at me while I'm blowing out candles gives me hives.

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.

I'm not materialistic. I believe in presents from the heart, like a drawing that a child does.

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.

Handmade presents are scary because they reveal that you have too much free time.

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.

Your children need your presence more than your presents.

There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents, and only one for birthday presents, you know.

My happiest memory of childhood was my first birthday in reform school. This teacher took an interest in me. In fact, he gave me the first birthday presents I ever got: a box of Cracker Jacks and a can of ABC shoe polish.

The significance of the cherry blossom tree in Japanese culture goes back hundreds of years. In their country, the cherry blossom represents the fragility and the beauty of life. It's a reminder that life is almost overwhelmingly beautiful but that it is also tragically short.

A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea. Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art.

Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.

'Lose My Cool' is the second track on my EP dedicated to a stage in the grieving process. This track represents anger. I really bottled a lot up after my mother passed, and one day, I couldn't handle it anymore and just exploded on all of my friends and family. It was a very passive way of dealing with things, not very healthy.

Wonder Woman, she's amazing. I love everything that she represents and everything that she stands for. She's all about love and compassion and truth and justice and equality, and she's a whole lot of woman.

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive.

If you feel an unquenchable thirst in you, welcome it. Celebrate it. In children, this thirst presents itself as curiosity. In adolescents, it appears as a search for love, for belonging. In young adults, it manifests itself as a search for worldly success, validation, recognition and acceptance in society. And when you are past your mid-30s...latest by your 40s...it appears as a search for meaning. Slowly, if you are tuned, and are in sync with the energy that created you, you discover something magical! You awaken to the truth that Life is intrinsically meaningless. And bringing meaning to your Life is your responsibility. You do that by following your Bliss, by choosing not to postpone your Happiness!

"The Christmas after Mom & Dad split up, they both went crazy buying us presents. Matt, Jonny, and I were showered with gifts at home and at Dads apartment. I thought that was great. I was all in favor of my love being paid for with presents.

Entertaining wrong crowd or being in the presents of people who don't want you or like you. Brings lot of trouble and problems. Everything you do will be offensive, insensitive, bad, wrong, inappropriate and questionable to them.

The self which represents me in society is a combination of what I am, what I think I am and what I pretend to be.