I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death. They thought nobody can make a living from being a writer in Brazil. They were not wrong.

My dad is very successful in his business. He's always been big in having hobbies and having little ways to get away. He always made time for hunting and fishing. He always encouraged me to do it.

I've never tried to find my real parents. I'm very grateful to my mum and dad for adopting me - they're completely incredible people. It was my dad who encouraged me to question everything to forge my own path to think to read. I always felt it was my right to question everything.

I grew up in a house where my father encouraged my brother and me to fail. I specifically remember coming home and saying 'Dad Dad I tried out for this or that and I was horrible ' and he would high-five me and say 'Way to go.'

I was encouraged to hear that GM has made great progress on the hydrogen car.

Paul is Starsky and I met him before shooting. He was very kind and encouraged us to go with what we wanted to do. It was very sweet to see them back with the car after 25 years.

Unlike a lot of actors my father encouraged all his kids to go into show business.

Look at growth look at how much time people spend on the Net and look at the variety of things that they are doing. It's all really good so I am actually encouraged by the fundamentals that underlie usage growth on the Net.

Shortly thereafter some friends encouraged me to try out for the Miss South Carolina World beauty pageant. To my surprise I won - and was sent to New York City to compete nationally.

My attitude toward graduate students was different I must say. I used graduate students as colleagues: I gave them the best problems to work on and I encouraged them.