Birthday Quotes

‘Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you! – Dr. Seuss’ – Dr. Seuss

‘It takes a long time to become young.’ – Pablo Picasso

‘The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.’ – Oprah Winfrey

‘Cherish all your happy moments; they make a fine cushion for old age.’ – Booth Tarkington

‘God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.’ – Voltaire

‘There are two great days in a person’s life – the day we are born and the day we discover why.’ – William Barclay

‘I wanted to buy a candle holder, but the store didn’t have one. So I got a cake.’ – Mitch Hedberg

‘The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.’ – Brian Tracy

‘How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are? – Satchel Paige’ – Satchel Paige

‘I intend to live forever. So far, so good.’ – Steven Wright

‘The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.’ – Denis Waitley

‘Let them eat cake.’ – Marie Antoinette

‘Don’t just count your years, make your years count.’ – George Meredith

‘You know you’re getting old when you get that one candle on the cake. It’s like, ‘See if you can blow this out.” – Jerry Seinfeld

‘I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.’ – Eleanor Roosevelt

‘You know you’re getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.’ – Bob Hope

‘The only thing better than singing is more singing.’ – Ella Fitzgerald

‘Let us never know what old age is. Let us know the happiness time brings, not count the years.’ – Ausonius

‘The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.’ – Madeleine L’Engle

‘You don’t get older, you get better.’ – Shirley Bassey

‘All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.’ – George Harrison

‘My policy on cake is pro having it and pro eating it.’ – Boris Johnson

‘Love the giver more than the gift.’ – Brigham Young

‘The way I see it, you should live everyday like its your birthday.’ – Paris Hilton

‘Cakes are special. Every birthday, every celebration ends with something sweet, a cake, and people remember. It’s all about the memories.’ – Buddy Valastro

‘Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time.’ – Jean Paul

‘We have to be able to grow up. Our wrinkles are our medals of the passage of life. They are what we have been through and who we want to be.’ – Lauren Hutton

‘A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.’ – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

‘Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words.’ – Plautus

‘A birthday is just another day where you go to work and people give you love. Age is just a state of mind, and you are as old as you think you are. You have to count your blessings and be happy.’ – Abhishek Bachchan

‘Your children need your presence more than your presents.’ – Jesse Jackson

‘If you can give your child only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.’ – Bruce Barton

‘There is still no cure for the common birthday.’ – John Glenn

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

‘To give somebody your time is the biggest gift you can give.’ – Franka Potente

‘Every year on your birthday, you get a chance to start new.’ – Sammy Hagar

‘It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm.” – Sam Levenson

‘To me – old age is always ten years older than I am.’ – Bernard Baruch

‘It is lovely, when I forget all birthdays, including my own, to find that somebody remembers me.’ – Ellen Glasgow

‘At my age flowers scare me.’ – George Burns

‘Every day, every birthday candle I blow out, every penny I throw over my shoulder in a wishing well, every time my daughter says, ‘Let’s make a wish on a star,’ there’s one thing I wish for: wisdom.’ – Rene Russo

‘I’m not going to be caught around here for any fool celebration. To hell with birthdays! – Norman Rockwell’ – Norman Rockwell

‘You take away all the other luxuries in life, and if you can make someone smile and laugh, you have given the most special gift: happiness.’ – Brad Garrett

‘The best way to remember your wife’s birthday is to forget it once.’ – E. Joseph Cossman

‘We’ll take the cake with the red cherry on top.’ – Navjot Singh Sidhu

‘My life is better with every year of living it.’ – Rachel Maddow

‘My biggest hero, Gregory Peck, was my birthday present on April 14, 1973. I just sat and stared at him.’ – Loretta Lynn

‘I remember when the candle shop burned down. Everyone stood around singing ‘Happy Birthday.” – Steven Wright

‘A gift, with a kind countenance, is a double present.’ – Thomas Fuller

‘We all have special numbers in our lives, and 4 is that for me. It’s the day I was born. My mother’s birthday, and a lot of my friends’ birthdays, are on the fourth; April 4 is my wedding date.’ – Beyonce Knowles

‘To my surprise, my 70s are nicer than my 60s and my 60s than my 50s, and I wouldn’t wish my teens and 20s on my enemies.’ – Lionel Blue

‘I’m not materialistic. I believe in presents from the heart, like a drawing that a child does.’ – Victoria Beckham

‘When someone asks if you’d like cake or pie, why not say you want cake and pie?’ – Lisa Loeb

‘If every year is a marble, how many marbles do you have left? How many sunrises, how many opportunities to rise to the full stature of your being?’ – Joy Page

‘A friend never defends a husband who gets his wife an electric skillet for her birthday.’ – Erma Bombeck

‘It’s odd the things that people remember. Parents will arrange a birthday party, certain it will stick in your mind forever. You’ll have a nice time, then two years later you’ll be like, ‘There was a pony there? Really? And a clown with one leg?” – David Sedaris

‘If I have the power to post ‘Happy Birthday’ on someone’s Facebook page and make them feel really good, it feels really good to make other people feel really good. I love it. I’m a huge Facebook and Twitter person. And I love talking to my fans. It’s fun.’ – Rebecca Mader

‘I love a card. You know, cards? At birthdays? I collect them.’ – Adele

‘I don’t pay attention to the number of birthdays. It’s weird when I say I’m 53. It just is crazy that I’m 53. I think I’m very immature. I feel like a kid. That’s why my back goes out all the time, because I completely forget I can’t do certain things anymore – like doing the plank for 10 minutes.’ – Ellen DeGeneres

‘I’m amazed. When I was 40, I thought I’d never make 50. And at 50 I thought the frosting on the cake would be 60. At 60, I was still going strong and enjoying everything.’ – Gloria Stuart

‘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.’ – Goran Ivanisevic

‘I binge when I’m happy. When everything is going really well, every day is like I’m at a birthday party.’ – Kirstie Alley

‘When I was in elementary school, I used to write letters to myself. I’d write letters and go ‘Dear Kristen-at-16-years-old, happy birthday. I hope you’re doing something.” – Kristin Kreuk

‘I’m a summer baby, so I usually have my birthday as a good summer memory.’ – Sloane Crosley

‘My ace in the hole as a human being used to be my capacity for remembering birthdays. I worked at it. Whenever I made a new friend, I made a point of finding out his or her birthday early on, and I would record it in my Filofax calendar.’ – Susan Orlean

‘I was forced to live far beyond my years when just a child, now I have reversed the order and I intend to remain young indefinitely.’ – Mary Pickford

‘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.’ – Gabriel Byrne

‘I kept a diary right after I was born. Day 1: Tired from the move. Day 2: Everyone thinks I’m an idiot.’ – Steven Wright

‘Youth has no age.’ – Pablo Picasso

‘Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.’ – Satchel Paige

‘This is a wonderful way to celebrate an 80th birthday… I wanted to be 65 again, but they wouldn’t let me – Homeland Security.’ – Art Buchwald

‘I cried on my 18th birthday. I thought 17 was such a nice age. You’re young enough to get away with things, but you’re old enough, too.’ – Liv Tyler

‘Handmade presents are scary because they reveal that you have too much free time.’ – Douglas Coupland

‘Most of us can remember a time when a birthday – especially if it was one’s own – brightened the world as if a second sun has risen.’ – Robert Staughton Lynd

‘I jumped out of an airplane on my 34th birthday because I promised myself I would. I have an interest in confronting my fears.’ – Michael Trucco

‘I had a birthday one night on a farm we were shooting on. I walked into the tent, and there were 150 people waiting for me, all wearing masks of my face.’ – Stephen Hopkins

‘I think there’s something about the homemade birthday cake, because my wife, on my daughter’s first birthday, started the tradition where she takes a full cake and cuts the number birthday out of it.’ – Willie Geist

‘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.’ – Flip Wilson

‘On every birthday, I ask my wife, ‘What would you like this year?’ and her instant reply is, ‘Diamonds! Diamonds! Diamonds!’ I’m always living in hope that one day she’ll say she just wants me!’ – Akshay Kumar

‘When I was little I thought, isn’t it nice that everybody celebrates on my birthday? Because it’s July 4th.’ – Gloria Stuart

‘For my birthday I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier… I put them in the same room and let them fight it out.’ – Steven Wright

‘The worst part about celebrating another birthday is the shock that you’re only as well as you are.’ – Anne Lamott

‘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.’ – David Henrie

‘For me, the end of childhood came when the number of candles on my birthday cake no longer reflected my age, around 19 or 20. From then on, each candle came to represent an entire decade.’ – Yotam Ottolenghi

‘I quit high school on my birthday. It was my senior year and I didn’t see the point. This was 1962, and I was ready to make music.’ – Barry White

‘If I could be doing anything, I’d be laying on the floor in my birthday suit eating junk food and watching something dumb on TV.’ – Anita Baker

‘Like many women my age, I am 28 years old.’ – Mary Schmich

‘I like birthday cake. It’s so symbolic. It’s a tempting symbol to load with something more complicated than just ‘Happy birthday!’ because it’s this emblem of childhood and a happy day.’ – Aimee Bender

‘Only then, approaching my fortieth birthday, I made philosophy my life’s work.’ – Karl Jaspers

‘My mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday, so I said I wanted to read poetry with her.’ – Guy Johnson

‘I am a big popcorn fanatic. I love popcorn. In fact one year for my birthday, my husband bought me one of those big popcorn machines like they have in movie theaters.’ – Debbie Macomber

‘People give one another things that can’t be gift wrapped.’ – Nadine Gordimer

‘The main prank that we play with props is for people’s birthdays. The special effects people will put a little explosive in the cake so it blows up in their face – that’s always fun to play on a guest star, or one of the trainees or someone who’s new.’ – Catherine Bell

‘As a child, I always chose a false nose and some face paint and a wig for my birthday.’ – Ashley Jensen

‘I like to go to anybody else’s birthday, and if I’m invited I’m a good guest. But I never celebrate my birthdays. I really don’t care.’ – Mikhail Baryshnikov

‘I love the big fresh starts, the clean slates like birthdays and new years, but I also really like the idea that we can get up every morning and start over.’ – Kristin Armstrong

‘Every year on my birthday, I start a new playlist titled after my current age so I can keep track of my favorite songs of the year as a sort of musical diary because I am a teenage girl.’ – Chris Hardwick

‘If you look over the years, the styles have changed – the clothes, the hair, the production, the approach to the songs. The icing to the cake has changed flavors. But if you really look at the cake itself, it’s really the same.’ – John Oates

‘For my birthday my husband learned to cook and is cooking one day a week for me. But he only likes to do fancy dishes. So we end up with weird, obscure things in the refrigerator.’ – Cheryl Hines

‘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.’ – Brit Marling

‘My mom FedExes a red velvet cake she makes from scratch to me every birthday.’ – Molly Sims

‘I like to give people novels I think they would like, on no particular occasion – just when we’re in a bookstore together. I like to receive reference books on my birthday.’ – Daniel Handler

‘My mother still sends a cake to the office for my birthday.’ – David Ulevitch

‘The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.’ – Samuel Johnson

‘The reason I met my husband was because I remembered a friend’s birthday. The moral of the story is: Remember people’s birthdays.’ – Julianna Margulies

‘In 1993 my birthday present was a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.’ – Annette Funicello

‘For my birthday this year, my girlfriends – who knew I’d just inherited my dad’s turntable – gave me a carton of albums like ‘Blue Kentucky Girl,’ by Emmylou Harris, and ‘Off the Wall,’ by Michael Jackson. It’s all stuff we grew up with. I mean, you can’t have a music collection without Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ – it just can’t be done!’ – Connie Britton

‘A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age.’ – Robert Frost

‘Any time women come together with a collective intention, it’s a powerful thing. Whether it’s sitting down making a quilt, in a kitchen preparing a meal, in a club reading the same book, or around the table playing cards, or planning a birthday party, when women come together with a collective intention, magic happens.’ – Phylicia Rashad

‘Every birthday is a gift. Every day is a gift.’ – Aretha Franklin

‘It was my 16th birthday – my mom and dad gave me my Goya classical guitar that day. I sat down, wrote this song, and I just knew that that was the only thing I could ever really do – write songs and sing them to people.’ – Stevie Nicks

‘John Candy knew he was going to die. He told me on his 40th birthday. He said, well, Maureen, I’m on borrowed time.’ – Maureen O’Hara

‘Most of us have fond memories of food from our childhood. Whether it was our mom’s homemade lasagna or a memorable chocolate birthday cake, food has a way of transporting us back to the past.’ – Homaro Cantu

‘Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.’ – Audrey Hepburn

‘If you’re going to do a job, do it right. If you’re going to throw a birthday party, make it amazing. If you’re going to do anything, do it awesome.’ – Jimmy John Liautaud

‘You always get a special kick on opening day, no matter how many you go through. You look forward to it like a birthday party when you’re a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen.’ – Joe DiMaggio

‘I trained to be a priest – started to. I went to seminary school when I was 11. I wanted to be a priest, but when they told me I could never have sex, not even on my birthday, I changed my mind.’ – Johnny Vegas

‘With my wife I don’t get no respect. I made a toast on her birthday to ‘the best woman a man ever had.’ The waiter joined me.’ – Rodney Dangerfield

‘I played rugby for years, and I had a rugby jacket that I lost when I was 14. Somehow, my brother found it in storage 15 years later, and he gave it back to me for my 30th birthday. That was amazing and probably one of the best gifts I’ve ever received.’ – Ryan Reynolds

‘The turning point was when I hit my 30th birthday. I thought, if really want to write, it’s time to start. I picked up the book How to Write a Novel in 90 Days. The author said to just write three pages a day, and I figured, I can do this. I never got past Page 3 of that book.’ – James Rollins

‘I’m pretty sure the first album I bought was a CD of ‘Electric Ladyland’ by Jimi Hendrix when I was about nine. I got it for my best friend from school at the time, because we loved Hendrix and became obsessed with ‘Crosstown Traffic’ in particular. I think it was for his birthday, but I definitely ripped it onto my MP3 player at some point.’ – Declan McKenna

‘I had a ‘Cats’ phase, where I did lots of overturned furniture and trash cans. I asked for a fog machine for my birthday.’ – Ben Platt

‘If I went out to play basketball with other kids, when I came home I’d shower and go right back to the computer again. If there was a birthday party or a family activity, I would take my laptop and spend the whole day there.’ – Bad Bunny

‘When you wake up every day, it’s like a new birthday: it’s a new chance to be great again and make great decisions.’ – Poo Bear

‘Anybody can have a birthday. It requires nothing. Murderers have birthdays. It’s the opposite of anything that I believe in. And I don’t like at work where you stop everything to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to someone. I feel like that’s for children.’ – Mindy Kaling

‘My mom and my father’s birthday are on the same day.’ – Victor Cruz

‘Brilliantly lit from stem to stern, she looked like a sagging birthday cake.’ – Walter Lord

‘When I was 11, I had an Ugly Sister birthday party. All my idea. Most girls want to be a fairy or a princess, but there I am with beauty spots and fur and fluorescent pink kiss-curls.’ – Lucy Punch

‘I saw Farrah Fawcett originally when she and her boyfriend, Lee Majors, came over to my house for a birthday party that I was having for my ex-wife, Leigh Taylor-Young.’ – Ryan O’Neal

‘If we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday at a time of presidential inaugurals, this is thanks to Ronald Reagan who created the holiday, and not to the Democratic Congress of the Carter years, which rejected it.’ – David Horowitz

‘One of the shocks of a 50th birthday is realizing the fundamental fact that your youth is irrevocably over.’ – Marianne Williamson

‘My 40th birthday I held in an old-age home. My 50th I had at Pravda before it opened in New York. My 60th I had at Pastis. For my 70th, I thought, ‘I don’t need to have a celebrity party this year. I’m going to go take my oldest, closest friends to Paris.” – John Waters

‘Martin Luther King can have his own self-titled birthday recognized as a national holiday, but not our country’s first president?’ – The Ultimate Warrior

‘If I’m about to forget my kid’s birthday, I want the phone to scream at me until I do something about it.’ – Sundar Pichai

‘You know, maybe I was just born in the wrong time, but I love all things romantic. Puffy understands that. For my last birthday, he covered my hotel room floor with rose petals and had flowers and candles all over the room.’ – Jennifer Lopez

‘I had the worst birthday party ever when I was a child because my parents hired a pony to give rides. And these ponies are never in good health. But this one dropped dead. It just wasn’t much fun after that. One kid would sit on him and the rest of us would drag him around.’ – Rita Rudner

‘As I approached my 95th birthday, I was burdened to write a book that addressed the epidemic of ‘easy believism.’ There is a mindset today that if people believe in God and do good works, they are going to Heaven.’ – Billy Graham

‘About astrology and palmistry: they are good because they make people vivid and full of possibilities. They are communism at its best. Everybody has a birthday and almost everybody has a palm.’ – Kurt Vonnegut

‘Plays have a celebratory nature that no other form has. Theater always meant celebration, a birthday, a reward for good grades. I felt at home in a theater. I loved being part of an audience. All the rules – the audience has to see the play on a certain date at a certain time in a certain place in a certain seat.’ – John Guare

‘I grew up on Section 8 housing, food stamps, welfare, and dealing with social services. I never had a Christmas. I never had a birthday.’ – Logic

‘Some people won’t go the extra mile, and then on their birthday, when no one makes a fuss, they feel neglected and bitter.’ – Anne Lamott

‘Robert Duvall saw me playing at a restaurant in Louisiana and invited me to be an extra in his movie ‘The Apostle.’ He gave me a guitar for my sixth birthday, and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world.’ – Hunter Hayes

‘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.’ – Alex Turner

‘I actually visit the temple every day but I genuinely don’t understand the importance that people give to their birthdays or any special day, be it a festival or a birthday.’ – Rekha

‘I am 23, the year of the iron birthday, the gate of darkness. I am ill.’ – Allen Ginsberg

‘I had a happy childhood in the suburbs of L.A. My parents instilled in us an appreciation of history, art and, most important, Motown. Jarron and I weren’t allowed to listen to rap until we were 12. After our birthday I dashed to Target and bought DJ Quik’s album ‘Quik Is the Name.’ I memorized every line.’ – Jason Collins

‘I started running around my 30th birthday. I wanted to lose weight; I didn’t anticipate the serenity. Being in motion, suddenly my body was busy and so my head could work out some issues I had swept under a carpet of wine and cheese. Good therapy, that’s a good run.’ – Michael Weatherly

‘Motorcycle riding has been a passion of mine since my 20th birthday, and as a proud member of the American Motorcyclist Association and the Harley Owners Group, I can attest that responsible riding has many unique recreational benefits for millions of Americans.’ – Tim Walberg

‘I did a cake for the 60th birthday of Elton John, for Britney Spears’ 27th birthday and for the ‘Circus’ album she put out – the cake had circus themes. I prepared a cake for a surprise 82nd birthday event for the architect Frank Gehry; the cake was comprised of mini-replicas of his buildings.’ – Ron Ben-Israel

‘I can sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to you in twelve different places, but one of them is going to make you feel a certain thing, maybe it’s a vulnerability, maybe an innocence, maybe another way is sexy and soulful or bluesy whatever it is, but with singers, exploring keys, I think, is important.’ – Idina Menzel

‘I’m not a big birthday guy; I never have been.’ – Lewis Black

‘I was given this beautiful coffee table book of Soviet architecture for my birthday. It has a lot of holiday camps, swimming pools, theatres, and buildings that were built for leisure activities. Incredible architecture in the most obscure places. It’s a little bit sad, because a lot of it has been left to fall apart.’ – Roisin Murphy

‘I turned 40 on the set of the reunion show for ‘Sheer Genius,’ so it wasn’t a hideous birthday because I had everyone on the cast and crew sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me, and I won $10,000 for being the fan favorite. It was really liberating to turn 40 and realize that I felt very comfortable with myself and knew who I was.’ – Tabatha Coffey

‘They decided as part of my 75th birthday celebrations that I would be entitled to fly first class. I’ll be honest, I’m not good at flying anymore. To my credit, I can stretch out on two coach seats.’ – Chuck Feeney

‘A little before my 10th birthday, I was like, ‘Can I please have a puppet, Mom and Dad?’ They were like, ‘No. You are a singer, not a ventriloquist. You have three brothers, and you’re in gymnastics. There’s no way we have time for this.’ – Darci Lynne Farmer’ – Darci Lynne Farmer

‘My best kiss was on stage. Kelly Rowland from Destiny’s Child gave me a really nice soft kiss on my lips during a performance on my birthday. It was amazing.’ – Chris Brown

‘I can’t make eye contact when people sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me.’ – Dove Cameron

‘I was honoured when they asked me to appear at the president’s birthday rally in Madison Square Garden. There was like a hush over the whole place when I came on to sing ‘Happy Birthday,’ like if I had been wearing a slip, I would have thought it was showing or something. I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, what if no sound comes out!” – Marilyn Monroe

‘If Congress can move President’s Day, Columbus Day and, alas, Martin Luther King’s Birthday celebration for the convenience of shoppers, shouldn’t they at least consider moving Election Day for the convenience of voters?’ – Andrew Young

‘I got my first camera when I was 21 – my boyfriend gave it to me for my birthday – but at that point politics was my life, and I viewed the camera as a tool for expressing my political beliefs rather than as an art medium.’ – Carrie Mae Weems

‘I definitely break out karaoke when my friends have birthday parties.’ – Josh Groban

‘I decided if you’re lucky enough to be alive, you should use each birthday to celebrate what your life is about.’ – Mary Steenburgen

‘I’m tired of playing people who are complete washouts and bums. I don’t mind waiting for the good ones to come along. It’s like age. It’s never bothered me. I’ve even forgot my birthday. Many times I’ve wondered if I should tell my real age, but now I think it’s an honor, to be doing what I’m doing now at my age.’ – Harry Dean Stanton

‘The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.’ – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

‘If I have one wish for my birthday, it is that 35 is the end of desperation and the beginning of acceptance. Part of that is believing that if I’m meant to give birth, I will.’ – Jessi Klein

‘Just before my 16th birthday, Natalie Dormer said to me, ‘As soon as you turn 16, you’re going to work adult hours. People will try take advantage of you, so it’s important not to be a pushover.” – Sophie Turner

‘My mother’s face floated to mind, a pale, reproachful moon, at her last and first visit to the asylum since my twentieth birthday. A daughter in an asylum! I had done that to her. Still, she had obviously decided to forgive me.’ – Sylvia Plath

‘All my grandchildren bake. On a Saturday, Annabel’s boys, Louis and Toby, always bake. Louis makes a chocolate cake, Toby makes banana or lemon drizzle. They’re 12 and 10, and they can do it totally on their own. My son’s twin girls, Abby and Grace, are 14; they make birthday cakes and like to do it on their own with Mum out of the way.’ – Mary Berry

‘I never missed a birthday. I never missed a school play. We carpooled. And the greatest compliment I can ever get is not about my career or performance or anything; it’s when people say, ‘You know, your girls are great.’ That’s the real thing for me.’ – Billy Crystal

‘On its self-titled debut, Happy Birthday flirts with several flavors of love, and ‘Girls FM’ is where taste gets confusing.’ – Anthony Fantano

‘We invest less in our friendships and expect more of friends than any other relationship. We spend days working out where to book for a romantic dinner, weeks wondering how to celebrate a partner or parent’s birthday, and seconds forgetting a friend’s important anniversary.’ – Mariella Frostrup

‘I think football saves many people. It can give you a life of luxury, but people don’t see all the effort that goes in behind the scenes. That might mean not seeing your family or missing your mother’s birthday; many players are so focused that they miss the birth of their children.’ – Alexis Sanchez

‘Even when I was an engineer, I was a comic on my job. At birthday and holiday parties, I was the one scheduling and emceeing. If you work on your gift, and you’re good, it will shine through.’ – Loni Love

‘I love the Sixties with Julie Christie and Jane Birkin – those natural English beauties. That’s the look that is most me, when I wore the tight-to-the knee dresses. I don’t think I bleached my hair until I was 20. I like experimenting for big occasions, though. You’ve always got to do a bit of a number for the birthday!’ – Kate Moss

‘Nicole will come up in conversations where it’s in a part of the conversation. Or we may be somewhere and I would tell some story about their mother and I. You know, we always honor her birthday.’ – O. J. Simpson

‘I would watch ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ and borrow a few lines here and there from guests like Red Buttons and Buddy Hackett to create a routine. Then I started getting invited to do political functions like the governor’s birthday ball or mayor’s dinner.’ – Norm Crosby

‘Most people tell you there are certain moments you should celebrate in life: for example, the weekend coming, so you should party on a Friday. Or your birthday or New Year’s Eve. But what if you’re excited about being alive every day? Can’t you be in that celebratory state every moment you’re not dead?’ – Andrew W.K.

‘If there’s one thing I really want for my birthday, that is for the mining company not to mine my daddy’s reserve.’ – Bindi Irwin

‘When I was six years old, Mom and Dad gave me a guitar for my birthday, and Daddy taught me the chords to ‘You Are My Sunshine.” – Roy Orbison

‘I’ve looked after my money. As I started working around my third birthday, my first check went straight to the bank.’ – Samantha Barks

‘I’m actually a perpetual 13-year-old. I’ve never advanced beyond 13. Every day, tomorrow is my 14th birthday. That’s my kind of humor.’ – Terry Crews

‘I’m really not the party type. I more like to have friends over at the house and chill. I’ve never been the super party type. But for the 18th birthday, you got to party. And then 21 is going to be even bigger.’ – Jacob Latimore

‘My 50th birthday approaching felt like a big milestone to me. I’ve lived half a century. If I write about food and use my life as a fulcrum to move the story along, maybe I’ve lived long enough to fashion a narrative that has a happy ending.’ – Kate Christensen

‘I’m not really big on gifts. I like giving back on my birthday.’ – Liza Soberano

‘My birthday is Feb. 11, and I’m both excited and not excited by it. You’ll never be 15 again, and you really, really need to savor every day like it’s your last.’ – Q’orianka Kilcher

‘Ravi always put in a lot of efforts for my birthday.’ – Sargun Mehta

‘I told my father I wanted to play the banjo, and so he saved the money and got ready to give me a banjo for my next birthday, and between that time and my birthday, I lost interest in the banjo and was playing guitar.’ – Jackson Browne

‘What makes ‘Maybach Music V’ so special was, of course, I put the album out celebrating my daughter’s birthday as well, and DeJ Loaf is her favorite artist. So ‘Maybach Music V,’ I wanted a real airy type of feel. Just a real slow vibe to it that’s also going to surprise my daughter. So that’s real special.’ – Rick Ross

‘I threw my 20th birthday party at Brown, and I didn’t even have to say to anyone not to put pictures on Facebook. Not a single picture went up. That was when I knew I’d found a solid group of friends, and I felt like I belonged.’ – Emma Watson

‘New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday.’ – Charles Lamb

‘School was a big source of anxiety for me. I hated school. I have social anxiety, and it developed when I was a kid. I had trouble going to birthday parties. It was always there. I begged my mom to let me be home-schooled at one point for a semester because I was so miserable at school.’ – Lili Reinhart

‘I hate my birthday. I don’t like to celebrate it much. But, if someone wants to throw me a surprise party, that normally works better.’ – Sophie

‘I’m amazed by how angry people get about new art, particularly new sculptures in their town. The people who hate new sculpture usually find their type of art on birthday cards, pictures of a vintage car going round a hairpin bend and suchlike.’ – Sean Lock

‘I didn’t start auditioning until my 10th birthday when I auditioned for ‘Matilda’ The Musical in London! It was actually the first time I realized that it was a career I could pursue.’ – Amybeth McNulty

‘On Sept. 20, 2011, a year after I spoke with Rabanni, a couple of Taliban emissaries arrived at his Kabul fortress with a gift for his 71st birthday. It turned out not to be the truce offering they had claimed they were bringing: one of the Talibs had a bomb hidden in his turban.’ – Terry Glavin

‘I just have to attend someone’s birthday party or go out for dinner with someone else for us to be in a relationship. That’s not going to stop me from socialising, but tell me, which girl would want to be with a guy who goes to bed early and gives more importance to the gym?’ – Sidharth Malhotra

‘Cryptic messages and abstract statements are littered throughout the music of Happy Birthday, but it hasn’t made the band’s sun-baked pop-rock any less infectious.’ – Anthony Fantano

‘For the youth, the indignation of most things will just surge as each birthday passes.’ – Chris Evans

‘For my 50th birthday, my cousin Helmut gave me the most profound, beautiful, and striking present. He made books out of my dad’s slide photographs, which were stored and forgotten. Looking at those books made me cry.’ – Juergen Teller

‘I don’t really remember, but I’m positive that whenever I cried, my mother gave me something to eat. I’m sure that whenever I had a fight with the little girl next door, or it was raining and I couldn’t go out, or I wasn’t invited to a birthday party, my mother gave me a piece of candy to make me feel better.’ – Jean Nidetch

‘I saw a man killed in front of my eyes just before my eighth birthday.’ – Peter O’Toole

‘We’ve all seen those spoiled little brats that end up being given everything and on their 17th birthday get a Ferrari. That whole thing I just can’t bear it.’ – Peter Jones

‘On my 30th birthday, all the presents I got were boxes of food. That’s what I needed.’ – Kay Lenz

‘During the summer of 2000, in the run-up to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday, I asked the Duke of Edinburgh if he was hoping to reach 100. ‘Good God, no,’ he spluttered, ‘I can’t imagine anything worse. What a ghastly idea.” – Gyles Brandreth

‘There is one person who sends me three cards every year. One on New Year’s, one for my birthday and the third that marks the anniversary of my flight into space.’ – Rakesh Sharma

‘I want a chainsaw very badly, because I think cutting down a tree would be unbelievably satisfying. I have asked for a chainsaw for my birthday, but I think I’ll probably be given jewelry instead.’ – Susan Orlean

‘I’ll never forget my 24th birthday when my tooth got punched out. And for a second I was like, it would be really hilarious if I sold it on eBay. But I can’t, that’s just too creepy. I don’t think I can go there.’ – Evan Rachel Wood

‘At some point in your life, if you live in Venezuela, you come across or own a cuatro. Either at school, either at camp, either at a friend’s house, at a birthday or Christmas or bar mitzvah, you end up with a cuatro. It’s like a must.’ – Devendra Banhart

‘After we covered Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now,’ Brian May and Roger Taylor sent us a bottle of champagne and asked us if we’d sing it on stage during the ‘We Will Rock You’ musical on what would have been Freddie Mercury’s 60th birthday.’ – Tom Fletcher

‘I started with Katie, a doll I got on eBay on my 10th birthday. I don’t use her anymore. I’ve got a new Katie now, a real ventriloquist’s puppet.’ – Darci Lynne Farmer

‘The 20th anniversary of my dad David’s death coincided with my 50th Test cap and for it to be my mum Janet’s birthday, too, made it an emotional few days. It was not an easy week, being the Pink Test and my mum having had breast cancer twice.’ – Jonny Bairstow

‘Most people think of January 1st as the start of a new year. To people who espouse to Catholicism and Christianity, they might correlate that with the birth of Christ. Us in football, the start of spring practice and the first day of summer training camp are what you look at as the New Year with fireworks going off, it’s your birthday.’ – Jim Harbaugh

‘Fourth of July. My birthday is July first, and my best friend’s birthday is July fifth, so it’s always been a favorite holiday. It’s all about having a cooler full of sodas, hot dogs, and just hanging out and shooting off firecrackers, being low-key, watching the fireworks.’ – Hilarie Burton

‘In a bar mitzvah, you do the candle-lighting ceremony with the cake. Every birthday, the cake is the big moment.’ – Ron Ben-Israel

‘I tried to bake a cake for my mother’s birthday – it took me four hours. It was terrible, and I cried for three days.’ – Rachael Ray

‘A true nature is a gloomy monolith, sort of like that old black rotary phone that I had to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Grandpa on. But novelists, damn us, still need true natures – so we can give them to our protagonists. And so readers can vaguely predict how they’ll behave when we trap them in ‘situations’ that they can’t IM their way out of.’ – Walter Kirn

‘I joined the army on my seventeenth birthday, full of the romance of war after having read a lot of World War I British poetry and having seen a lot of post-World War II films. I thought the romantic presentations of war influenced my joining and my presentation of war to my younger siblings.’ – Walter Dean Myers

‘I’m a Virgo and I’m more – I don’t want to say ‘negative’ – but I’m the girl who thinks no one’s coming to my birthday party, no one’s buying my clothes, no one’s reading my book, no one’s watching my show – that’s just how I think.’ – Rachel Zoe

‘I just had my 30th birthday and we went turkey shooting. It’s what I wanted to do, so we went.’ – Kelly Clarkson

‘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.’ – Demetri Martin

‘My parents were dishonest people. If it was my birthday, I knew my mother took me to the K-Mart and she stole my toy. She’d put it in the shopping cart and we’d walk out. I was raised with that.’ – Vincent Gallo

‘When I did ‘Happy Birthday,’ I wrote the treatment for the video before I wrote the record. And once I wrote the video, I had a clear understanding of what I wanted; I created the soundtrack to that video.’ – Joyner Lucas

‘I filed a brief as a friend of the court in the U. of Michigan to keep affirmative action at the U. of Michigan, which I attended the law school. And I was one of the original sponsors of making the Martin Luther King birthday a federal holiday.’ – Dick Gephardt

‘I’ve never looked forward to a birthday like I’m looking forward to my new daughter’s birthday, because two days after that is when I can apply for reinstatement.’ – Pete Rose

‘Mattresses! Beautiful! Let’s go buy a couple of mattresses. Give ’em to people for their birthday.’ – Lawrence Tierney

‘I have had fans make me the big picture collages of the photo books; I have had fans send me birthday cakes… sing to me on my voicemail. I have had fans flash me. I have had older fans give me their bras and underwear onstage.’ – Sean Combs

‘With a recent birthday, I’ve been acting now for twenty years.’ – Thayer David

‘You know, we’d just had a birthday, he was… you know, he still had a future out of him, and all I can is he was just one of the most beautiful people in the world… a very gifted man, and it’s a loss to the world, not just for us.’ – Robin Gibb

‘One I built when I was a kid, and it was a real miniature of Disneyland. I fell in love with the park when I went there with my parents on my 12th birthday.’ – Bobby Sherman

‘The American flag is an enduring symbol of liberty, democracy, and justice. It is fitting that the House act to protect it as we approach our nation’s birthday, and as our men and women in uniform rally behind it in Iraq’s battlefields.’ – Joe Barton

‘We didn’t have a whole lot of money when I was growing up either. I would always ask for magic books or magic tricks for my birthday or for Christmas and the rest of the year I either had to mow lawns or find part time jobs to help supplement the cost of doing magic.’ – Lance Burton

‘I used to go down every year for the remembrance of Elvis’ birthday. Memphis State College invited me to sit in the auditorium and speak to the people for one of those Elvis days.’ – Otis Blackwell

‘I crashed my boyfriend’s birthday when I was 12 years old. He didn’t invite me and so I showed up.’ – Isla Fisher

‘I grew up doing all that stuff because I was obsessed with the ’50s. I had sock hops for birthday parties. So I’ve always done The Twist and stuff. It was pretty natural and, with my parents doing it all the time, I’d just copy them. Not very pretty.’ – Brittany Snow

‘There weren’t any astronauts until I was about 10. Yuri Gagarin went into space right around my 10th birthday.’ – John L. Phillips

‘And currently, there are four to five new works in the pipeline for upcoming celebrations such as the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Australian Federation, my 50th Birthday, and Sydney Dance Company’s 25th Anniversary.’ – Graeme Murphy

‘My son had his eighth birthday recently and we had a chance to borrow the film and show it to all of his friends that was at his birthday party and they loved it. I was a little nervous. I said they might not even like it, and say his daddy’s movie is wack, but they loved it.’ – Blair Underwood

‘And for the city’s birthday, we will host events in every neighborhood of the city, inviting all of our residents to share in the celebration of Boston’s great epic – the story of neighbors who support one another where it matters most.’ – Thomas Menino

‘On my birthday, I was in Milan for the collections.’ – Eva Herzigova

‘I went to a rare live Van Dyke show and met him there. And then he came to a show of mine and we spoke back stage. The third time was at Brian Wilson’s birthday party.’ – Matthew Sweet

‘The summer of 2002 at the Wilson birthday party I met Van Dyke again and I made plans to have dinner with him.’ – Matthew Sweet

‘I suddenly realized how much I loved her when we attended Alfred Hitchcock’s 75th birthday party last August. There was something magical about that night, and it made me see how much she really meant to me.’ – Rod Taylor

‘I play PC and Xbox games at home, and I just got a PSP as a birthday present.’ – Uwe Boll

‘I wasn’t very good about juggling family and my career. I was interested in who was coming to the children’s birthday party, what my son was writing. I was thinking about Legos.’ – Jill Clayburgh

‘On a royal birthday every house must fly a flag, or the owner would be dragged to a police station and be fined twenty-five rubles.’ – Mary Antin

‘As far as those kinds of things, I also played at the concert to call for the release of Nelson Mandela when he was a political prisoner in South Africa. We were celebrating his 70th birthday and calling for his release.’ – Jackson Browne

‘I love photography. My boyfriend’s got a great camera, which I bought for his birthday.’ – Sarah Sutton

‘I had been offered a Hollywood contract before my 18th birthday. It gave me the spark I needed.’ – Gene Tierney

‘Lucy took care of me on the set, and made sure that none of the crew cussed around me. She also had birthday parties for me and made sure that they were well attended.’ – Keith Thibodeaux

‘I had arranged a birthday party for him and my children, who are all Aquarians. Instead, we got married. I ran out of excuses. It was just us and my children.’ – Diane von Furstenberg

‘My second play, The Birthday Party, I wrote in 1958 – or 1957. It was totally destroyed by the critics of the day, who called it an absolute load of rubbish.’ – Harold Pinter

‘Well, I started conducting kind of by accident. I wanted to give myself a special birthday present for my fortieth birthday, and I was living in San Francisco at the time and I started attending some of the concerts and then simply dropping hints.’ – Bobby McFerrin

‘I’m trying to get the record that I made at my birthday party last year, trying to get that out, and the lawyers are diddling around with it and it probably won’t be out until next year. I don’t know.’ – Marian McPartland

‘I used to be good with kids, but as I get older, I’m grumpy and terrible with them. As for doing a gig at a 6-year old’s birthday party, you couldn’t pay me enough.’ – Johnny Vegas

‘It is ironic that the one thing that all religions recognize as separating us from our creator, our very self-consciousness, is also the one thing that divides us from our fellow creatures. It was a bitter birthday present from evolution.’ – Annie Dillard

‘I want to say that probably 24 hours after I told CBS that I was stepping down at my 65th birthday, I was already regretting it. And I regretted it every day since.’ – Walter Cronkite

‘I’m most comfortable in my birthday suit.’ – Amanda Seyfried

‘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.’ – Adele

‘We were probably the last people in the country to get a VCR and we didn’t have cable. There wasn’t any admiration of glamour, no, ‘I want to look like them or have that lifestyle’, because everyone in my town had the same lifestyle. So I didn’t think, ‘Ooh, a movie star’s birthday!’ I just thought, ‘What?” – Christina Hendricks

‘I love having my birthday at Australia Zoo.’ – Bindi Irwin

‘All my favorite stars, my family and my friends are here. I’m having the happiest birthday that an 18-year-old girl could ever have.’ – Brandy Norwood

‘As I approach my 88th birthday, it’s become apparent to me that my eyes and ears, among other appurtenances, aren’t quite what they used to be. The prospect of long flights to wherever in search of whatever are not quite as appealing.’ – Mike Wallace

‘My mom won’t let me buy high-fashion stuff unless it’s TK Maxx or a birthday occasion.’ – Chloe Grace Moretz

‘My first recognition of age setting in was exactly on my 36th birthday. I have no idea why, on this day of all days, I looked in the mirror and realized my face no longer looked young.’ – Paulina Porizkova

‘I was fired by ‘America’s Next Top Model’ on my birthday.’ – Paulina Porizkova

‘I sing a little bit. I got a guitar for my 16th birthday.’ – Jesse Plemons

‘All I watch is the Food Network. I took a cheesemaking class a few weeks ago, and I told my family and friends to only get me kitchen stuff on my birthday. I’m into every kind of cookbook and anything by Anthony Bourdain. I’d love to own a restaurant if I could find the right chef.’ – Jesse McCartney

‘I can put my legs behind my head and sing ‘Happy Birthday.’ Because that’s something that me and my friends used to do when we were in gymnastics class as kids, and I can still do it. I was doing it since I was 8 and 9. They used to call me Gumby. Very bendy.’ – Emmy Rossum

‘When I was a kid, for my birthday every year, my mother made me pasta bechamel, which is rigatoni with a white cream sauce.’ – Giada De Laurentiis

‘I was quite a shy child. I would get terribly nervous and throw up before my birthday party. And then I would be fine. I feel the same now. I get nervous, then it’s fine.’ – Matthew Macfadyen

‘I worked at an ice cream parlor called Chadwicks. We wore old-timey outfits and had to bang a drum, play a kazoo, and sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to people while giving them free birthday sundaes. Lots of ice cream scooping and $1 tips.’ – Amy Poehler

‘I always wanted to shave. It is a very natural process. For my birthday I got a lot of shaving stuff.’ – Chaz Bono

‘I lost twins at 14 weeks, and I had to have an D and C on my birthday.’ – Amy Weber

‘I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he’s made of sugar.’ – George Saunders

‘My brother got a .22 for his 12th birthday; I got a .22. He got a hunting knife; I got a hunting knife.’ – Stephanie Cutter

‘The day before my 16th birthday I got my guitar.’ – Stevie Nicks

‘The first guitar I ever got was for my 13th birthday.’ – Rick Springfield

‘Interventions are really emotionally exhausting and I would never ever want to have one. In the same way, I would never want to have a surprise birthday party. That would be horrible.’ – Margaret Cho

‘I gave a funny speech at my wife’s birthday party, and I’m thinking, ‘Hey, I’ve still got it.” – Larry David

‘I left school on my 15th birthday.’ – David Bailey

‘I’m over the moon to be involved in the ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas special. I can’t quite believe it as it’s a part of the family tradition at the Jenkins household. I heard the news that I got the role on my 30th birthday and it was the best birthday present ever.’ – Katherine Jenkins

‘I hate birthdays. I thought that I only hated my own birthday, and then I realized that I hate my children’s birthdays too.’ – Samantha Bee

‘With my daughter, we do arts and crafts, we read a lot, we listen to music, and we cut the strings off balloons and bounce them around after birthday parties.’ – Lisa Loeb

‘I saw Richard Linklater’s film ‘Slacker’ for my twenty-first birthday. That was the moment when it all seemed possible. This guy gave me hope.’ – Kevin Smith

‘I hate birthdays. I hate birthday parties. I hate them. I don’t know what it is, anybody’s only got to come wafting near me with a piece of cake with a candle on and I break out in hives.’ – Cat Deeley

‘Citizens, thank you for all your birthday wishes. I am 88 years old today and still lucky to live in the greatest city in the world.’ – Ed Koch

‘I was fired at the pinnacle of my career, on my 39th birthday. And in the year that followed, I learned that there are many psychological phases of being ‘let go.” – Mika Brzezinski

‘Even when I was a kid, I had a good thing with kids. To this day, if I go to a birthday party with one of my kids, I swear to you, I am so much happier hanging out with my kids and their friends than talking to the grown-ups.’ – Shawn Levy

‘The Queen of Crafts herself, Martha Stewart, and I have the same birthday. I prefer to think it’s the glue-gun wielding, perfect-tart-producing Martha and not the copper pan-throwing, jail-going Martha. But I suppose if I am going to share a calendar square with some of Martha, I have to share it with all of Martha.’ – Sloane Crosley

‘Since graduation, I have measured time in 4-by-5-inch pieces of paper, four days on the left and three on the right. Every social engagement, interview, reading, flight, doctor’s appointment, birthday and dry-cleaning reminder has been handwritten between metal loops.’ – Sloane Crosley

‘I’ve got some incredible fans actually – so loyal and they make me birthday cards and Christmas cards. I got this package of poems and artwork based around the songs. They’ve got this thing called ‘Floetry’ where they all have to put in artwork. They’ve set up their own competitions and stuff which is kind of amazing.’ – Florence Welch

‘I married two weeks after my 18th birthday, far too young, and by the time I was 23 I was a single mother of three small children, Sean, Daniel and Victoria, living in a prefab house.’ – Sue Townsend

‘And I was very shy as a kid; if you sang me ‘Happy Birthday,’ I would cry. Quite shy. So the idea of being an actor, much less a model, was just out of this world.’ – Cody Horn

‘I’ve been a Nick Cave fan since the early ’80s when he was part of The Birthday Party thing singing Australian self-destructive rock band and I’ve always followed his work and loved it.’ – Aleksandar Hemon

‘I’ve died so many times. I’m 65. On my 40th birthday, my girlfriend gave me a reel with ways I had died, whether it was by knife, or electrocution or drowning or being thrown off a building or whatever it might have been. I’ve died a lot of times!’ – Jonathan Banks

‘I’ve raced on all seven continents at least twice. I’ve probably run thousands of races. But the single race that I’m most proud is a 10K. Yes, a 10K. I ran it with my daughter on her 10th birthday.’ – Dean Karnazes

‘Why, on my mother’s birthday, am I thinking about ‘Father Knows Best?’ At our house, mother knew best at least as often as father did, but then the title of the old sitcom, a homogenized portrait of American family life, was meant to be slightly sardonic.’ – Tom Shales

‘I was born full grown in the middle of a hurricane and an earthquake on 10 September 1954, 12.52 P.M. When I found out that I had missed lunch, I gave such a shout that the Earth stopped and spun backwards two days. That’s why I celebrate my birthday on 8 September.’ – Jon Scieszka

‘Yes, I am scared of prison. It’s the last thing if you are after building up a business over 38 years and you are approaching your 66th birthday and you never owed a man a penny and you feel hard done by and you try to protect yourself and your family and go to prison – if that is the society we are living in, I am happy to accept that.’ – Sean Quinn

‘That’s the great thing about New Year’s, you get to be a year older. For me, that wasn’t such a joke, because my birthday was always around this time. When I was a kid, my father used to tell me that everybody was celebrating my birthday. That’s what the trees are all about.’ – Alan King

‘My parents screened ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’ for my 6th birthday, and I became fascinated by the idea of living in a candy land with chocolate rivers and lollipop trees.’ – Dylan Lauren

‘Every five years, I like to do a big birthday party. I had my 45th birthday with 75 friends in Marrakesh, Morocco.’ – Chip Conley

‘In the Mexican culture, we never miss a baptism, a birthday, a baby shower, a wedding shower, a wedding. You must show up. Otherwise, you’ll be in big trouble.’ – Eva Longoria

‘I believe that at least 70 percent of parenting goes to the mother. In our house, I’m the one who knows about all the school stuff, helps with the homework, organizes the play dates, and remembers the birthday parties.’ – Cindy Crawford

‘When Oscar Niemeyer died on December 5, 2012, ten days before his 105th birthday, he was universally regarded as the very last of the twentieth century’s major architectural masters, an astonishing survivor whose most famous accomplishment, Brasilia, was the climactic episode of utopian High Modern urbanism.’ – Martin Filler

‘Having a birthday cake squashed into your face by young kids? Delicious. I always don a Santa suit at Christmas. Remaining childish is a tremendous state of innocence.’ – John Lydon

‘On my 14th birthday, my grandfather and my grandmother gave me the best birthday present ever: a drafting table that I have worked on ever since.’ – Jarrett J. Krosoczka

‘My 21st birthday was awesome. I was in L.A., and it was great. I had a bunch of friends that came out. The night ended up in a completely different direction than we thought it was going to go.’ – Jonathan Keltz

‘Every year before a big competition, I get hurt doing stuff I should not be doing. One year it was my little brother’s 12th birthday. We all played hide-and-seek late at night. I climbed up a 30-foot tree, thinking he’d never catch me. I tripped and fell on one of the branches and I hit my head.’ – Ryan Lochte

‘I dated a guy for over a year who lied about his age the entire time. I found out after the fact and couldn’t believe it! I even threw him a birthday party for the wrong age… I couldn’t get over how hard he had tried to keep it a secret!’ – Kirsten Prout

‘I have angel wings and a halo on my wrist, which I got done on my 30th birthday in memory of my brother.’ – Sheridan Smith

‘I got my first tennis racket on my seventh birthday. And because we had a tennis court in our backyard, I played every day. By ten I was playing competitively.’ – Tullian Tchividjian

‘I celebrated my 18th birthday in Japan, which was quite memorable; I was quite fascinated by the different traditions and the culture; it was so completely different to Australian culture.’ – Miranda Kerr

‘If you are an actress in L.A., on your 40th birthday they should just hand you the keys to the lunatic asylum.’ – Romola Garai

‘I’ve always wanted to buy a sports car. After the England series, I went up to my dad and said that I wanted to buy a sports car and got his consent. On his birthday, I surprised him by bringing it home. It’s a Porsche Boxter Limited Edition, and my family was thrilled to see it.’ – Suresh Raina

‘I thought it would be cool to Skype with fans on their birthday and spend, like, a half-hour with them. I did a couple of two-hour Skypes. I just hang out with them and play songs and stuff. At first they’re kind of shy, but after a while they open up. I’ve had a lot of people tell me I’m doing something no one has ever done before.’ – Austin Mahone

‘My birthday is a day when all I want is to bask in the love of my family and rarely accept offers for concerts and shows if they are to be held on this day.’ – Kailash Kher

‘I know that might sound silly coming from someone my age, but I remember on my 14th birthday having a crisis like my mom should be having. I kept thinking that I was getting older, and I haven’t really accomplished anything. I remember thinking that I better accomplish something real soon.’ – Q’orianka Kilcher

‘I think the best thing about my job is that I have my life documented, which not many people get to have. They have a photo here and there and maybe some video footage from a birthday. My kids will be able to see me growing up.’ – Kirsten Dunst

‘The thrill of performing – that’s something that hasn’t changed for me. That simultaneous joy of creating something and sharing it with an audience – it’s the same now as it was then, when it was just my cousins’ birthday party.’ – Steve Buscemi

‘I guess I could say I’m an actor, which I am, but that sounds like I’m putting down being a movie star, which, let’s face it, is what I’ve become to many people. For myself, I’m a guy who was very insecure from about age 14 until the day I hit my 30th birthday.’ – Dennis Quaid

‘I often go to bed in my birthday suit. But I like teddies and cute little undies that match. I like a sexy bra and panty set, or little shorts.’ – Queen Latifah

‘I have friends who hide in their bedroom for three days every time they have another birthday. That’s what brings the wrinkles! I didn’t care when I turned 30 or 40 or 50.’ – Maria Conchita Alonso

‘When I was six, my best friend’s parents bought him a piano. My mother noticed that every time I would go to his house, the first thing I would say to him was ‘Levester’ – His name was Levester – I said, ‘Levester, can I go play your piano?’ So, on my 7th birthday, my parents bought me a piano.’ – Herbie Hancock

‘I wanted to be the next Dana Carvey. This was my ultimate goal. If I ever cut into a birthday cake and made a wish, I would wish to be on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ If I threw a coin into a fountain, I would wish to be on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ If I saw a shooting star, I would wish to be on ‘Saturday Night Live.” – Jimmy Fallon

‘For Tim Burton’s birthday I gave him a rainbow beetle. He loved it!’ – Eva Green

‘When I auditioned for drama college, they asked me to do my Shakespeare. I couldn’t do it. They asked me to do my modern, and I couldn’t do it. They asked me if I had a song prepared, and I said ‘No,’ so I sang ‘Happy Birthday.’ And I did a reasonable improvisation, a reasonable one, nothing special at all. I don’t know how I got in, but I did.’ – Hans Matheson

‘Success happened little by little for me. I tasted the flavor of fame in small doses: I started at 10 years old when I won a music contest; I was performing at birthday parties, company meetings.’ – Shakira

‘It’s in my stars to invent; I was born on Madame Curie’s birthday. I have this need for originals, for innovation. That’s why I like Charlie Parker.’ – Joni Mitchell

‘I wanted Cathy and Irving to actually say ‘I do’ and be pronounced husband and wife on Feb. 5, which is my mom’s birthday.’ – Cathy Guisewite

‘I’m an avid shoe fan. I got my first pair of Louboutins as a birthday gift from Jami Gertz.’ – Toks Olagundoye

‘I had Hallowe’en parties every year, as it was my birthday five days before. My parents would actually put prosthetic noses on, and my dad would wear a top-hat and tails, put on a fake curly moustache, and hold a pipe.’ – Bat for Lashes

‘If you catch me lying, it’s probably because I’m about to surprise someone for their birthday, or hide away the specific details about a company getaway to a strange but amazing place.’ – Ryan Holmes

‘Friends and family do not believe you write fiction. They truly believe that every word you write is either autobiographical or based on them. I once had a character say that she never wanted to be invited to another children’s birthday party, and I never received another children’s birthday party invitation ever again.’ – Liane Moriarty

‘I was standing right behind Marilyn, completely invisible, when she sang ‘Happy birthday, Mr. President.’ And indeed, the corny thing happened: Her dress split for my benefit, and there was Marilyn, and yes, indeed, she didn’t wear any underwear.’ – Mike Nichols

‘I have an ambivalent relationship with Margaret Thatcher. She came to power in May 1979 – a month before my 11th birthday. I was far too young to have developed a great deal of political awareness. I remember it, though – my mother excited at the dinner table because Britain had its first female prime minister.’ – Sara Sheridan

‘Growing up, my birthday was always Confederate Memorial Day. It helped to create this profound sense of awareness about the Civil War and the 100 years between the Civil War and the civil rights movement and my parents’ then-illegal and interracial marriage.’ – Natasha Trethewey

‘I get letters constantly from all over the world, telephone calls from America, Brazil, Australia, all over, especially on my birthday. A family? I have a huge international family. That’s all I need.’ – Renata Tebaldi

‘When you’re an expert in a subject, you can retain new factoids on your favorite topic easily. This only works for the subjects you’re truly passionate about, though. Baseball fans can reel off stats for their favorite players, then space out on their own birthday.’ – Clive Thompson

‘The more Mommy blogs going nuclear over playground etiquette I read and birthday parties of glazed adults munching cupcakes like demoralized zombies I attend, I realize this is what my friends who conceived before me meant by, ‘You just won’t care.” – Emma McLaughlin

‘I’m not a birthday person. Maybe because I don’t like to build expectations around that one day. You never know how it’ll turn out to be.’ – Ranbir Kapoor

‘Funny story: I was hanging out with Adam Shankman for Samantha Ronson’s birthday, and Lance Bass was there. I don’t really know Lance, but he comes over to me and goes, ‘Hey, I just wanted to let you know I’m a fan of ‘Pretty Little Liars’ and I’m rooting for your character.’ It was surreal! That’s how ‘PLL’ has changed my life.’ – Ryan Guzman

‘I like working on my birthday, so I always do.’ – Abhishek Bachchan

‘When I was 13 or 14, my mother used to gift me books that I was dying to read. Those are my most memorable birthday gifts.’ – Kajol

‘I promised myself: Before your 18th birthday, you’re going to be at Jean Paul Gaultier. And it worked. I was hired.’ – Nicolas Ghesquiere

‘Seven years into writing a novel, I started to lose my mind. My thirty-seventh birthday had just come and gone, the end of 2008 was approaching, and I was constantly aware of how little I had managed to accomplish.’ – Akhil Sharma

‘I can remember the three restaurant experiences of my childhood. All I wanted to do on my birthday was to go to the Automat in New York… but I don’t know if you consider that a real restaurant.’ – Alice Waters

‘I have been a frequent air traveler since I was a few months shy of my sixth birthday, when my parents packed me off to boarding school two plane rides away from home. Those days of being willingly handed from air hostess to air hostess as an ‘unaccompanied minor’ made me blase about the rigors of air travel.’ – Shashi Tharoor

‘I think I’ve wanted to be an actress since the day I was born. I even asked my parents for an agent for my seventh birthday!’ – Shoshannah Stern

‘As a kid, I always went to therapists; the first time was when my parents were separated on my sixth birthday, then on and off since then.’ – Pete Wentz

‘I love mayonnaise. Every birthday when I was a kid I’d go to Black Angus and just dip my burger in mayo.’ – Blake Anderson

‘I was very aware of Jeff Buckley. My brother actually bought me The Mamas And The Papas and Jeff Buckley for my birthday when I was in my early teens.’ – Imogen Poots

‘I timed my previous wife’s pregnancy to the moment to have my son born on Bob Dylan’s 50th birthday. There is no bigger Bob Dylan fan than me. You don’t just time the day and impregnate your wife to get your kid to be born on Bob Dylan’s 50th birthday.’ – Charlie Trotter

‘In January 1962, when I was the author of one and a half unperformed plays, I attended a student production of ‘The Birthday Party’ at the Victoria Rooms in Bristol. Just before it began, I realised that Harold Pinter was sitting in front of me.’ – Tom Stoppard

‘Jewellery’s not a big thing for me. The only thing I wear is a gold cross on a chain that I got for my 21st birthday. You have to take it off every day for filming, but that’s the only time I’m not wearing it. You won’t find me in rings, bracelets or earrings.’ – Jonas Armstrong

‘Washington’s birthday is worthy of celebration – he is one of the greatest men in history. But Washington himself would likely have seen celebration of the office of the presidency itself as monarchic in nature.’ – Ben Shapiro

‘My mom had me at 16 and took me every place she went. I remember going on peace marches. She tried to take me to Woodstock – it was pouring rain. It was on my birthday, and I was crying so much in the car they turned the car around and dumped me at my grandmother’s house… I had a little attitude.’ – Debi Mazar

‘An army environment is very protected, a walled city kind of environment, where everybody has the same income, you have the same birthday parties, you are given return gifts – everything is the same. Everybody is moving up at the same pace.’ – Nimrat Kaur

‘For my 23rd birthday, I received a nylon string guitar. I told myself that if I could play Eric Clapton’s ‘Tears In Heaven,’ then I could play the guitar. I practised every chance I got, driving my housemates insane, until several weeks later I had a shaky version of the song down. I wrote my first song on the guitar a few weeks after that.’ – Neil Jackson

‘If I go away, I take a little picture of my son. It’s in a frame with a speaker, and he recorded a birthday message for me when he was nine or 10. I can’t listen to it without filling up.’ – Lesley Manville

‘I’m one of those people who had Christmas and my birthday always combined, and generally, my birthday was pretty much ignored. But my parents are always good about making some kind of special effort to make me feel like I also have a birthday that exists.’ – Noel Wells

‘I never got a chocolate birthday cake; I got a carob one. And when I went to other kids’ houses, I was very covetous of things like Cheez Whiz that I’d find in their refrigerators.’ – Amanda Marshall

‘By the time of my ninth birthday, I had become a bit of a socialist, as I am said by conservative colleagues to be to this day. I went on within the next few years to volunteer as an envelope stuffer for the American Labor Party, and my political thinking has not shifted measurably since that time.’ – Sherwin B. Nuland

‘The first comic book I ever read was an issue of ‘Legion of Super-Heroes’ where the earth was surrounded by all of these chains. I remember the cover; I got it at a birthday party.’ – Jonathan Hickman

‘My first paying job might have been doing a play, actually. My mom paid me to dress up as a flounder at my sister’s ‘Little Mermaid’ – themed birthday party when I was little.’ – Paul Dano

‘As he approached his 28th birthday in February 1840, Dickens knew himself to be famous, successful and tired. He needed a rest, and he made up his mind to keep the year free of the pressure of producing monthly installments of yet another long novel.’ – Claire Tomalin

‘Ask any teenage girl to describe her perfect bedroom, and you’ll get answers like ‘a room with a private phone line, a place to hang out with friends, and for it to be way-cool and funky.’ Ask parents the same question, and ‘a locked door that opens on their 21st birthday’ might top the list!’ – Candice Olson

‘I am the guy dressing up in, you know, the caveman outfit for the kids’ birthday parties.’ – Rob Lowe

‘I often imagine what it would be like if my father were still here to mark his 100th birthday, if Alzheimer’s hadn’t clawed away years, possibilities, hopes. What would he think of all the commemorations and celebrations?’ – Patti Davis

‘My dad bought me a dartboard for my 11th birthday, and I became intrigued by the game.’ – Eric Bristow

‘I’ve got more than 600 pairs of Ray-Ban sunglasses, from 1950s originals to newer models. I have them on the wall like opticians do so I can pick out a pair that goes with my outfit. I had around 30 pairs, then my husband Rainer started getting them for me as birthday and Christmas gifts.’ – Suzi Quatro

‘I always knew that good stuff would come along when I was older. So when I was 18, I longed to be 30; when I was 30, I longed to be 50. I’ve always looked forward to my next birthday.’ – Joanna Lumley

‘For my 50th birthday, I got ahold of a new print of ‘Saturday Night Fever.’ I see it much more as a tough coming-of-age movie than as a disco story.’ – Gene Siskel

‘The summer before my third year of law school, I worked at a law firm in Washington, D.C. I turned 25 that July, and on my birthday, my father happened to be playing in a local jazz club called Pigfoot and invited me to join him. I hadn’t spent a birthday with him since I was 3, but I agreed.’ – Deval Patrick

‘Family time was very difficult when my girls were little, but I never missed a birthday; I was there for every major event.’ – Jeff Dunham

‘If you’ve been running a business for 38 years, you’re approaching your 66th birthday, you’ve never owed a man a penny or done anyone any grievance in your life, and you feel hard done-by and try to protect yourself and your family, but go to prison, well if that’s the society we’re living in, I’m happy to accept that.’ – Sean Quinn

‘One thing that was really dope for me was that my dad had a ’78 Corvette, ’78 or ’76 Corvette all my life. It always needed to be fixed up. I remember it’s just been sitting in the driveway for years, and I got it fixed from top to bottom for his birthday.’ – Sevyn Streeter

‘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.’ – Lily James

‘I’d be happy to live till 80 as long as I was comfortable and in good health. Mind you, ask me again on the eve of my 80th birthday. Even so, I hope we don’t all start living to be 120. I’m not sure I’d cope with another 60 years.’ – Bonnie Tyler

‘May it be long before the people of the United States shall cease to take a deep and pervading interest in the Fourth of July, as the birthday of our national life, or the event which then occurred shall be subordinated to any other of our national history.’ – Samuel Freeman Miller

‘The first memory I have in the world is of death and tears. That is how I would mark the beginning of my life: the way people mark the end of one. My family had gathered at Papa Joe’s house because Mam’ Grace was slipping away, only I didn’t register it that way. For some reason I thought that it was her birthday.’ – Charles M. Blow

‘I can still remember the afternoon, on my 15th birthday, when I opened up ‘The Virgin and the Gypsy,’ D.H. Lawrence’s novella, in my tiny cell in boarding school, and whole worlds of possibility opened out that I had never guessed existed. The language was on fire and sang of liberation.’ – Pico Iyer

‘I once choked on a chip at a friend’s birthday when I was seven and had to be sent home, as I’d broken my collarbone coughing.’ – Stella Young

‘I remember for my 18th birthday, I was going to get a tattoo, and I made the mistake of thinking I was a man and telling my father, and he was like, ‘Oh yeah? You better tattoo a new address on your arm, because you’re not living here!’ And that was the end of that discussion.’ – Adam Ferrara

‘My first proper kiss was from Cara Shucksmith when I was 13 or 14 at her birthday party.’ – Robert Webb

‘On my actual 16th birthday, on the actual day, I went home and I had chicken korma and Peshwari naan bread and pilau rice, and that was fantastic.’ – Maisie Williams

‘The only show my mother could afford to take me to when I was growing up was ‘Cats’, for my birthday.’ – Tammy Blanchard

‘Every night, I was read to. Every Friday, we were taken to the library. I always received at least one book for my birthday. I have a few of them yet. Early on, I had my own collection of books. I loved to read. Still do.’ – Avi

‘When I was a teenager, the actors I was really into were Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn. I saw ‘Rumble Fish’ on my 16th birthday, and around the same time, it was ‘Falcon and the Snowman’ and ‘Bad Boys’ from Sean Penn.’ – Aidan Gillen

”Down on Me’ can’t showcase my true talent. ‘Birthday Sex’ was robotic. When I perform it, I can’t give you this church feeling I know I can give.’ – Jeremih

‘You should feel good about making your home nicer for your family and your friends. You should feel great about cooking a good dinner and making a dress for a granddaughter, creating a beautiful birthday party. It’s all part of life.’ – Martha Stewart

‘In 1980, shortly before my 11th birthday, I wrote my first essay in English.’ – Pankaj Mishra

‘By the time I was seven, I did a sonnet at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre for Shakespeare’s birthday because my dad had been at the first season of the Globe and was friends with the artistic director. Somehow, that lead to me doing a sonnet!’ – Alfred Enoch

‘I had a birthday party with my family and friends at a house, and Chipotle catered. It was beautiful.’ – Ansel Elgort

‘I’ve never really made a big deal out of my birthday.’ – Nikki Reed

‘I remember when I was working at Sprint, I’d work on my birthday, New Year’s Day, and even Christmas Eve. I’m just used to working on my birthday, so I’ll be celebrating it afterward.’ – Prince Royce

‘I must have been yearning for some Jewish content beyond my genetic makeup because soon after my 21st birthday, I noticed I was no longer dating WASPs.’ – Susan Isaacs

‘In the winter of 2012, as my fiftieth birthday approached, I began to write what turned into my autobiography, a look at my own life through the lens of food.’ – Kate Christensen

‘You think back and you ask yourself why you became so interested in wolves. I think it was because when I was very small, growing up in a little hamlet near Shap, we would go to Lowther Wildlife Park for birthday parties. Now closed, it was only three miles from my parents’ house.’ – Sarah Hall

‘My mother always bought our birthday gifts.’ – Bruce Eric Kaplan

‘Less than two weeks before my 34th birthday, I bought pots. Most people were amazed that I did not previously own pots, but that was before I explained that I had never used my oven, and used my stovetop for my dishrack.’ – Rachel Sklar

‘We have a host of English teachers in the family. My mum is an English teacher, and so are my dad, my aunt and my uncle. I have grown up with family writing competitions, and I can’t remember a birthday or Christmas present that didn’t include books.’ – Alexandra Adornetto

‘In college, I wrote newspaper articles and songs. Then, on my 21st birthday, I sold my first book. It was a nonfiction book about women pirates – ‘Pirates in Petticoats.’ After that, I was a book writer for good.’ – Jane Yolen

‘I believe that if writers want their readers to care about a character, they have to care themselves. I have to root for a detective who screws up as much as Thorne does, who shares my birthday, my North London stomping ground, and my love of country music, both alt and cheesy.’ – Mark Billingham

‘The first glimpse I had of what Mario Batali’s friends had described to me as the ‘myth of Mario’ was on a cold Saturday night in January 2002, when I invited him to a birthday dinner.’ – Bill Buford

‘I don’t like my birthday. I don’t like things that are directed towards me. It took me a long time to get over people asking me to write my name in the book.’ – Matthew Pearl

‘One week before my 17th birthday, I had a blind date with June Rose, a television actress on network soap operas, a model, and a regular on the popular Dick Clark’s Saturday night ‘American Bandstand’ show from New York. We were married five years later, one week after my graduation from Columbia.’ – Robert C. Merton

‘Most artists don’t get paid for what they do, and they are lucky if they can persuade a friend to let them show something at a kid’s birthday party.’ – Andrei Codrescu

‘I actually had the pleasure of meeting David Bowie at his 50th birthday party in New York City. I handed him the cassette of ‘Eight Arms to Hold You,’ which I had just got an advance of that day. He very graciously thanked me and tucked it into his jacket pocket.’ – Louise Post

‘I first picked up a guitar when I was ten years old; my parents surprised me with it for my tenth birthday. I started taking lessons when I was thirteen, but only for a few months, and then I just kept teaching myself.’ – Alessia Cara

‘For my 11th birthday, I asked to be adopted.’ – Kaui Hart Hemmings

‘My father was one of the fortunate wartime servicemen: he made a full recovery from his injuries, was promoted to captain, survived the war, had a satisfying career as a colonial officer and, eventually, died in February 2002, a month before his 85th birthday.’ – Michael Ashcroft

‘Traditionally Presidents Day was Washington’s birthday. It was celebrated as a public holiday on February 22 each year, in peace or in war.’ – Nigel Hamilton

‘Yes, I grew up with guns. For my 16th birthday, in fact, I received a .357 instead of a car. But there was nothing playful about them; they were tools. My parents went through a back-to-the-land phase. Most of our vegetables and fruits came from our own garden.’ – Benjamin Percy

‘I have a strong memory of the day I was told that my father had a weak heart and that he had to go to the hospital. He died when I was nine years old on the same day that Franklin Roosevelt died; it was his 45th birthday.’ – Alan J. Heeger

‘I met Leonardo DiCaprio and Busta Rhymes the same night, on my birthday in New York.’ – Jason Mitchell

‘My father was a legendary copywriter. He wrote ‘Timex Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking.’ He named Earth Day ‘Earth Day.’ It falls on his birthday, April 22. Earth Day, birthday. So the idea came easily.’ – Sarah Koenig

‘I find the violence in PG13 movies unbearable. This kid will never run home, never have another birthday. His death is slow, nightmarish. And you have to explore the consequences – the people who live on with this death.’ – Marlon James

‘On my 50th birthday in 2005, my discount-wielding AARP card came in the mail. I hurled it in the trash, put on something fabulous, and had a decadent meal. Just the thought of putting it in my wallet felt like a concession.’ – Iman

‘I threw my son, Brandon, a rave for his birthday and I fully set it up like a crazy rave with lights and sound, me and my partner DJ’d – I got Mix Master Mike from the Beastie Boys to come DJ for a bit.’ – Tommy Lee

‘Lesley Gore’s part-time field was pop singer, and in her brief but urgent prime, she was the Queen of Teen Angst. She endured heartbreak as a birthday girl betrayed by her beau in ‘It’s My Party,’ savored revenge in the sequel ‘Judy’s Turn to Cry’ and belted the proto-feminist anthem ‘You Don’t Own Me.” – Richard Corliss

‘I’m not big on dark chocolate, but I do have a sweet tooth, so it gets me in trouble. I love warm chocolate chip cookies with ice cream. Then there’s this chocolate pie my mom makes for me every year for my birthday. She’s been making it since I was younger, and there’s nothing like it. It’s really so, so good!’ – Phillip Phillips

‘As I approached my 18th birthday and prepared to enter military service in World War II, I was recommended to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood.’ – Thomas S. Monson

‘I lived for 15 years in Los Angeles, and I still can’t believe that the handsomest man in the world, Cary Grant, and the greatest performer in the world, Fred Astaire, and Johnny Carson, one after another – they were all in my home at different times. I celebrated my 50th birthday with them. Unforgettable.’ – Tony Bennett

‘Sinatra invited me once to his birthday party in L.A. I was young, and I felt great about it. But when I got there, the Rat Pack were all in the kitchen laughing their heads off.’ – Tony Bennett

‘For my 16th birthday, my family took me to L’Auberge de L’Ill, which was family-run but had three Michelin stars. It was a revelation. After that meal, I realised this is what I want to do.’ – Jean-Georges Vongerichten

‘I was in my mid-teens when someone gave me a copy of ‘Pears Encyclopaedia of Myth and Legends’ as a birthday present. It sat on my shelves for many months before I looked at it. When I did, I couldn’t stop reading it.’ – Tariq Ali

‘I went by Kyle, and I made friends on the team as Kyle. It went on for a pretty long time, until I went to a birthday party in a dress and all the hockey players were like… ‘Kyle?” – Katie Nolan

‘A 1920s dress I wore on my 21st birthday… literally disintegrated on me. I had the most wild debauched night. And that disintegrated dress sits in my closet – such a great memory.’ – Liz Goldwyn

‘I like to do special things for people. Any time someone has a birthday, I make them a really special cake that they all seem to love – it’s a Coca-Cola cake.’ – Kimberly Schlapman

‘I did not have a normal life. I’d be training when my sister would be at birthday parties and sleepovers. I finished high school by correspondence, basically working two full-time jobs. The last years were very, very tough. But I was willing to do that. It’s all about sacrifice.’ – Eugenie Bouchard

‘I enjoy the celebration of my birthday as much as anyone else does, but I always remember to start my day thanking my mom because she did most of the work the day I came into the world, not to mention all she has done throughout my life that has contributed so much to the woman I am today.’ – Christy Turlington

‘Our kids will never have to remember things, because it’s all in pictures. Want to remember your fourth birthday? There’ll be video of it on your phone.’ – Jason Bateman

‘I was put on a pony as a kid at some birthday party when you’re all led around.’ – Victoria Pendleton

‘Early on, when my wife and I were dating, we went to the grocery store, and I told her that sometimes I just buy birthday cakes, and I eat them. And she said: ‘Really? I do, too.” – Tom Cotton

‘My every birthday wish was, ‘I want to someday be on TV.” – Awkwafina

‘I’m a very keen baker; I pride myself on my cakes. I go along the classic sponge line, but I like to jazz it up: I’ve made some psychedelic birthday cakes.’ – Greg Rutherford

‘It is really a great feeling to win a World Cup on your birthday.’ – Nino Schurter

‘I love getting scared. I find myself putting myself in situations like haunted houses or going to a haunted hospital for my birthday. Yes, I’ve actually done that.’ – Selena Gomez

‘I remember debating the finer points of flaky pastry with my chicken-pot-pie-obsessed American dad. I remember the divine mix of Thai food, TV dinners, and hearty, homemade goodness that have shaped this palate of mine to this day. I remember all this, but I still Google my husband’s birthday. Thank God he’s famous.’ – Chrissy Teigen

‘I think my first album was a gift for my birthday and a Faith Hill album; I loved her.’ – Sara Sampaio

‘Jesus’ birthday is commercialized, so of course, Black History Month is commercialized.’ – Jidenna

‘Does Martin Luther King really want his birthday commercialized?’ – Jidenna

‘I wear jewellery that I never take off. I have a ring and two necklaces. I always have them on and get scared when I have to take them off for photo shoots. The ring is my mum’s mum’s mum’s, and she gave it to me for my 18th birthday. The necklace is the same one that my sister has. She’s called Hannah, and the name is the chain.’ – Zara Larsson

‘There’s video footage of my 10th birthday where I’m wearing, like, a little pink T-shirt. Then my dad comes in brandishing a copy of ‘Eraserhead,’ going, ‘Look what we’ve got for tonight!” – Jane Goldman

‘For my 10th birthday, what I wanted was Beatle boots and a Beatle wig. My parents couldn’t find Beatle boots, but down at the dime store, Woolworths or someplace, they found a Beatle wig!’ – Ron Howard

‘I wrote ‘The Room’, ‘The Birthday Party’, and ‘The Dumb Waiter’ in 1957, I was acting all the time in a repertory company, doing all kinds of jobs, traveling to Bournemouth and Torquay and Birmingham.’ – Harold Pinter

‘More and more, there are things in my life that I find hard to say. Like, ‘David Bowie and Lorde were at my birthday party.’ She’s a phenomenal spirit.’ – Tilda Swinton

‘I once attended a birthday party where Danny Kaye dropped in to entertain the birthday boy and his guests; I was sometimes taken for lunch on Saturdays by my father to The Brown Derby; and my favorite meal is still the Cobb salad in the Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel.’ – Michael Korda

‘The sexiest thing my girlfriend has ever done for me is when she planned three full days of events, meals, and surprises for my birthday. It was like one continuous gift.’ – Chris Wood

‘Nobody is going to pretend that I am younger than I am. Apart from anything else, it is in the papers all the damn time – every time I have a birthday.’ – Laurence Olivier

‘I was only 16 when I was selected for ‘Madrasapattinam.’ I celebrated my 17th birthday on the set of the film. That was the first time I had travelled to India, and it was a rollercoaster ride. I soon fell in love with the country.’ – Amy Jackson

‘One of my favorite memories was one time Prince picked me up and said we were going to Michael Jordan’s birthday party.’ – Tamron Hall

‘I don’t go into a fight mad. I go into a fight like it’s my birthday. I love what I’m doing.’ – Paige VanZant

‘Having a Mary Poppins-themed birthday party when I was 5 – all my friends went in dresses, and I went as a chimney sweep. I was a real tomboy.’ – Poppy Delevingne

‘I remember, for my fifth birthday, Chet Baker sat me on the upright piano, and he played just for me for a few minutes. I can still remember the pressure of the air on my chest. It was my first physical contact with sound.’ – Jean-Michel Jarre

‘My great-grandmother lived to be 100 years old, so I got to know her. She always sent us birthday cards that had $2 bills inside – we kept them for good luck.’ – Dana Perino

‘Having studied at the Sorbonne, I spent my 21st birthday in Paris and celebrated with one of my professors in a cafe outside of Notre Dame.’ – Joseph Abboud

‘About 50 percent of the songs on the radio are like, ‘Live like tomorrow doesn’t exist. Like it’s my birthday. Like it’s the last day of my life’… Such a large percentage of pop music is really about party time.’ – Sia

‘Given the importance of Washington, outsiders probably have an unrealistic perspective on how large the city is. The fact is, Washington D.C. is a small town, and most everyone knows most everyone else. That person of the other party who you despise will someday be at your daughter’s birthday party.’ – Kevin Hassett

‘I don’t go to celebrity parties a lot. I don’t really enjoy them because I really like going for it in parties. And sometimes at celebrity parties, there is no dancing on tables because people… it can be a little judgmental at times. So I tend not to go unless it is Taylor Swift’s birthday party; then it’s amazing.’ – Sam Smith

‘When I was younger, I was a rave kid trapped inside a singer/songwriter’s body. But I kind of figured my way out because I started making these really terrible beats on this Yamaha keyboard that my parents got me for my 10th birthday.’ – Charli XCX

‘I’m good in summer. My birthday is in summer. I don’t like it when it’s too hot, but, you know, blue skies, I think people genuinely loosen up a bit, and it’s nicer.’ – George Ezra

‘I’ve never hosted a party in my life, not even my own birthday party. I’d feel really uncomfortable saying, ‘Hey everybody, let’s celebrate me!’ But I’m not antisocial. I don’t hate people.’ – Alessia Cara

‘As a kid, I would wake up, and there’d be a jazz funeral while I’m walking to school. And when I come home, you can find Rebirth band playing for a birthday party the same day.’ – Trombone Shorty

‘I was in kidney failure. I ended up having a kidney transplant on my 21st birthday.’ – Amy Purdy

‘I wore a $30 vintage wedding dress for my 8th birthday in an underground jazz club in Seattle. This was what I wanted.’ – Dove Cameron

‘I don’t know what that is because to me, Feb. 14 is Rob Thomas’ birthday, and that’s only what I acknowledge it as. I just like to celebrate that as Rob Thomas’ birthday.’ – Nikki Glaser

‘When I turned 35, I thought, ‘Mozart was dead at 36, so I set the bar: I’m going to start writing a book on my next birthday.’ I thought historical fiction would be easiest because I was a university professor and know my way around a library, and it seemed easier to look things up than make them up.’ – Diana Gabaldon

‘Nick Swardson used to have birthday paint parties. They were phenomenal.’ – Craig Robinson

‘Nicole Richie invited me to her birthday party, and it was at Michael Jackson’s Neverland!’ – Gaby Hoffmann

‘I was on the train; I did play, but I also played in bars, in the streets, at birthday parties for people who discovered me on the train.’ – Benjamin Clementine

‘There are two kinds of people in crisis situations – those who fight and those who freeze. I’m a freezer, and that’s just going by the couple of surprise birthday parties I’ve had thrown for me.’ – Cobie Smulders

‘The Governors Ball is like a big birthday party, and all these stars are like excited kids running around – ‘Oooo, look at my pretty new dress!’ And what’s the best, most fun surprise at a birthday party? When the cake comes out!’ – Sherry Yard

‘Having a birthday around the holidays was never easy and, with every successive year, it felt more and more as if celebrating my birthday got thrown into the December holiday mix as an afterthought.’ – Chelsea Manning

‘I just remember celebrating my 18th birthday at home, so that was a big party.’ – Angelique Kerber

‘The first time I went on a serious run was when I was 21 years old at Stanford University. From 21 to 30, I continued the tradition and ran 10 miles every year on my birthday.’ – Sterling K. Brown

‘I really thought to myself, ‘If I’m going to do anything in this world, I am going to be the best I can be.’ I have a tennis coach that has taken me as far as my body can go. I hired a private skiing coach during my birthday week. I have a private yoga instructor. I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t give yourself every advantage.’ – Mark Pincus

‘For a meal out, my number one restaurant is Peter’s Inn. I first went there when it was an old biker bar. Believe me, when it was Motorcycle Pete’s, that was fun. I had my 30th birthday there.’ – John Waters

‘For my fifth birthday, I got a small tennis racket. That’s how I started.’ – Ana Ivanovic

‘I remember one summer I played, like, with the granddaughter of this known Klan member. Like, all summer we caught cicadas. And we had grown close, and so it was, like, time for her birthday party and I said ‘Oh, like, what time do I come for your party?’ And she’s like ‘Oh, no, you can’t come to my house ’cause my parents don’t like black people.” – Dee Rees

‘On my fourth or fifth birthday, a guitar was given to me, and I made a new friend. A very loud friend.’ – Eliot Sumner

‘Facebook has gone from a nice-and-boring social network to becoming an identity layer of the web. It is where nearly a billion people are depositing the artifacts of civilization in the 21st century – photos, videos, and birthday wishes.’ – Om Malik

‘In 1984, when I was a rookie member of the House, there was a bill introduced to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a state holiday. It didn’t have a chance. As time passed, though, more and more states adopted the holiday. Finally, after about five years, we passed it and, I think, almost unanimously. As I said, change is slow and hard.’ – John Grisham

‘My father was a shaman. He told me that time doesn’t exist. He didn’t use a clock. He didn’t know when my birthday was.’ – Alessandro Michele

‘In the time of social media, I get lots of wishes. It’s overwhelming! What makes the day most special is the love I get from my fans, who try to make the occasion extra special. Almost 50 days before my birthday, they have started making plans. In fact, I have been receiving letters, too.’ – Harshvardhan Rane

‘Even when I was in Dubai, I used to host small birthday parties, events, and lots more to make money of my own to fulfil my wish to become an actor. I didn’t take any money from my parents to fulfil my dream.’ – Rithvik Dhanjani

‘I don’t like to party. I like to spend time with family on my birthday.’ – Virender Sehwag

‘Til the day I didn’t play under-19 World Cup, nobody ever celebrated my birthday. And the moment I played for Indian team, my family got excited and ordered and cut a cake for me in front of 40-50 family members.’ – Virender Sehwag

‘My wife and I love to travel, so if we don’t have work on either her or my birthday, we definitely travel.’ – Barun Sobti

‘Since the day I got married, I never got to plan my birthday.’ – Barun Sobti

‘I like to keep my birthday very relaxed.’ – Barun Sobti

‘My interests were more extracurricular, more external, and more social than they were academic. My birthday is also in December, so I was one of the older kids. That meant I learned social leadership early on. I was always just much better in a team and work environment than I was in a classroom environment.’ – Nancy Dubuc

‘My mom kicked me out a couple of weeks before my 18th birthday. I had a job for about six, seven months at a supermarket, and they fired me for being late.’ – Cardi B

‘The first posh meal out I had was on my 10th birthday.’ – Maxine Peake

‘I can remember my father gave me a huge history of football for my 12th birthday – I used to read that a lot. I can remember thinking it was cool that something I was interested in even had a history. Most things I loved didn’t.’ – Nick Hornby

‘Did you know you’re supposed to soap and scrub for as long as it takes to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice?’ – Faith Salie

‘It was a big pleasure to play a Grand Slam match on my birthday.’ – Dominic Thiem

‘I remember, for my birthday once, we all dressed up as Spice Girls. I was Scary.’ – Hannah John-Kamen

‘My parents split before my fifth birthday, and I moved with Mom and my three siblings to her native Oahu.’ – Janet Mock

‘My family’s dog, when I was growing up, was an adopted dog that I got in a shelter for my birthday. I’ve always felt really strongly about adopting animals and trying to save animals’ lives.’ – Gus Kenworthy

‘I have given myself a Tesla for my 60th birthday.’ – Stanley Druckenmiller

‘I’ve always loved watches. It’s been the one thing that I’ve asked for, whether it was every Christmas or a birthday.’ – Yara Shahidi

‘To me, full-time mothering felt like way too much and yet not nearly enough. Lost in a landslide of diapers, birthday parties, and others’ needs, I ached to reestablish myself.’ – Glennon Doyle Melton

”Robin’s Test’ is more contemporary than what I normally do. It’s about couples going on a camping holiday for a 50th birthday. Two couples go, and then this other couple were going to come, but they’ve broken up, and so the man from that couple turns up, but with a new girlfriend that nobody likes – and I’m playing that character.’ – Julia Davis

‘I remember the first time that I realized that being black meant that I wasn’t allowed certain things. It was in the fourth grade, and it was who I thought was my best friend not inviting me to his birthday party because I would be the only black kid there. It was the first time I ever felt restricted, and it certainly wasn’t the last time.’ – Justin Simien

‘My birthday is in November, so I think I’m a Scorpio? I’m not even sure!’ – Ryan Hurd

‘I was born in Korea and left before my first birthday.’ – Mary H.K. Choi

‘For my 9th birthday, my only wish was to eat like a farmer boy. I had devoured ‘The Little House on the Prairie’ book series and wanted to be like Almanzo Wilder, the protagonist of ‘Farmer Boy,’ one of the later installments in the ‘Little House’ series.’ – Charles Best

‘The great children’s author and illustrator Shirley Hughes marks her 90th birthday by appearing as Michael Berkeley’s guest in ‘Private Passions’.’ – David Hepworth

‘We kind of look at music as something very natural in people’s lives. I mean, most of us can relate to music in some sort of shape and form, and if you think about it, most of us remember the first time we kissed someone, what kind of music was playing or the song that was playing on our friend’s birthday.’ – Daniel Ek

‘Prince Charles was once obsessed with a particular beauty, Anna Wallace, and couldn’t understand why she walked out on him after he spent the evening dancing with Camilla at the Queen Mother’s 80th birthday party.’ – Ingrid Seward

‘The question on my husband’s birthday is always, What do you get for the man who has nothing?’ – Pamela Druckerman

‘I was hurtling towards 40, and I’d always wanted to write. It does focus your mind, heading towards that big birthday. If there is anything you think you want to do, you think, ‘I probably should have a go now!” – Gail Honeyman

‘I’ve been singing since I could talk. I started playing the piano when I was about 5 or 6. I picked up the guitar on my 20th birthday.’ – Grace Potter

‘Don’t invite me to a surprise birthday party. I don’t have room for that secret. I’ve got enough real secrets I have to keep: dark, life-destroying secrets.’ – Matt Besser

‘I started performing non-professionally at birthday parties and family gatherings doing ‘Saturday Night Live’ impressions at four. Then I started for real at seven.’ – Annaleigh Ashford

‘Your birthday happens each year on exactly the same day. It is a solid thing, a dependable thing, a measure of your life broken down into 365 subunits. For a Leaper, it is a bit different. For us, the basic assumption is shattered from the beginning.’ – Rick Tumlinson

‘In the world of online invitations, nothing is sacred. People will invite all 500 of their ‘closest’ friends to their birthday party – and 485 of those people will RSVP ‘yes’ without intending to show up.’ – Susannah Cahalan

‘At 91, every day is a birthday.’ – Charlotte Rae

‘I remember going to see ‘Starlight Express’ almost every birthday I had as a treat because I just loved it, and the idea that you could rollerskate in a sort of scary old theatre… It was sort of a novel concept.’ – Harry Hadden-Paton

‘Facebook lets me be lazy the way a man in a stereotypical 1950s office can be lazy. Facebook is the digital equivalent of my secretary, or perhaps my wife, yelling at me not to forget to wish someone a happy birthday or to inform me I have a social engagement this evening.’ – Sarah Jeong

‘I spent my 18th birthday in jail. Charges were dropped as long as I promised never to return to the state of Kansas. My parents took me home to Louisiana. I lasted there a week. Then I ran away.’ – Mary Gauthier

‘Not knowing my birthday had never seemed strange. I knew I’d been born near the end of September, and each year I picked a day, one that didn’t fall on a Sunday because it’s no fun spending your birthday in church.’ – Tara Westover

‘I grew up going to bakeries in Tel Aviv; that’s where we got our birthday cakes, they were always European baking and butter creams. We have such good baking in Israel, and we have the Diaspora of Jews from all over, and we learned early on to adapt and absorb flavors from all over.’ – Ron Ben-Israel

‘When I retired from the NFL, my son was born on my birthday two weeks later, which is Valentine’s Day. Imagine having a son born on your birthday.’ – Jim Kelly

‘I don’t set up screenings. I can barely plan my kid’s birthday party.’ – Becky Albertalli

‘Life is all about balance, and there are certain times of the year – birthday, anniversary, holidays – that are meant to be enjoyed without guilt. That being said, Thanksgiving is a meal – it’s not a Thanksgiving day, and it’s not a Thanksgiving week.’ – Harley Pasternak

‘If you believe in romance, and if you believe in marriage, you also have to believe in divorce. It’s like, with ‘Getting On,’ a lot of people say, ‘I don’t want to watch that. It’s so dark.’ But you can’t just want to go to weddings and children’s birthday parties. You’ve got to witness it all.’ – Alex Borstein

‘I have heard of ‘Green Street’-dedicated birthday parties, a website dedicated only to the clothing. It has no end. If you hashtag #greenstreet or #greenstreethooligans, you cannot go a day without people saying it’s their favourite movie. It’s frustrating because it’s a massive hit, but nobody gives it credit.’ – Lexi Alexander

‘I like spending time with my family and friends on my birthday.’ – Prabhas

‘For my 21st birthday party, I had a ‘Strictly’-themed fancy dress.’ – Rachel Riley

‘I remember I asked my mom for a ukulele, and she said no because she thought I would never play it. So then I got my birthday money up, and I bought my own. It was the most rebellious thing I’ve ever done.’ – Grace VanderWaal

‘A family friend was staying with us once and had brought over a ukulele. I just loved the way she played it. I saved up the money from my 11th birthday and went out and bought one for myself.’ – Grace VanderWaal

‘Somewhere it was written that October 18th is my birthday, and some people flew to Georgia to wish me! They came to my college, spoke to my professor, found out where I lived, and they were at my doorstep! I was shocked!’ – Sai Pallavi

‘I began seeing certain things happen in my life and other people’s lives and getting inspired by it and writing about it. And that’s where you get ‘Happy Birthday’ from and ‘Ross Capicchioni’ from or you even get ‘I’m Sorry’ from.’ – Joyner Lucas

‘Every year, I think you earn the right to eat cake on your birthday.’ – Bret Hart

‘My fourth birthday, I was given a violin, and my fifth birthday, a guitar. I didn’t start to play until I saw Hendrix on TV. They showed him setting his guitar on fire and burning it for the Monterey Pop Festival.’ – Yngwie Malmsteen

‘There was an old acoustic in the house that my mother had given me for my fifth birthday. I took it off the wall and started jamming. I was seven years old at the time.’ – Yngwie Malmsteen

‘I’m a big fan of Kurt Cobain. I put a picture of him holding a gun on my Instagram for his birthday. He’s definitely one of my favorite rock artists.’ – Prodigy

‘There are times I have to diet 16 weeks at a go, and I had to miss out on stuff I love, like burgers and birthday parties.’ – Ronnie Coleman

‘This is going to make me sound awful, but I was 18 when I took my first flight because the Prince of Brunei flew Mis-Teeq over to play at his birthday party! I was in business class being fed amazing food. I got over my fear pretty quickly.’ – Alesha Dixon

‘My mum, she loves a bargain hunt. You can’t buy her anything expensive. I remember I bought her a diamond bracelet for her birthday. I was being a nice son! She told me to take it back.’ – Daniel Sturridge

‘I remember, after getting my very first CD player for a birthday, I immediately purchased the soundtrack to the movie ‘Grease.” – Vincent Rodriguez III

‘As soon as I became a mom, my birthday stopped having any meaning whatsoever.’ – Marisol Nichols

‘When it comes to birthdays, I think there are two camps. There are people like me, who choose to treat it like any other day, and then there are the ‘birthday people.’ You know, those people who claim the full month in which they were born as their own.’ – Dan Levy

‘For sheer creativity and totality of involvement, ‘Rolf’s Cartoon Club’ with HTV in Bristol was an amazing show to work on, but I think the ‘Rolf on Art’ series, culminating in the painting of the Queen’s portrait to celebrate her 80th birthday, just nudges into the favourite spot.’ – Rolf Harris

‘The first time I performed onstage was at church. Then I formed a rock cover band – Pink Floyd and Joan Jett. We’d play at birthday parties, since it wasn’t exactly church material.’ – Cailee Spaeny

‘My earliest memory is my parents forgetting my fourth birthday. My dad looked up from reading the paper and went, ‘Oh my God!’ So we went out, and I chose a red scooter.’ – Sandi Toksvig

‘For my 21st birthday, my now-wife, at the time girlfriend, flew across the country and showed up at my house.’ – Kevin Jonas

‘It’s kind of ironic that the only Super Bowl I’ve been to as a fan was when the Rams played the Titans. I was at that game. My grandpa, when he was still involved in the NFL, he got me tickets for my birthday.’ – Sean McVay

‘I don’t really drink, but the one thing I really hanker after is Zubrowka vodka. If it’s someone’s birthday, I’ll pretend I like red wine for about three sips.’ – Sue Perkins

‘I count the weeks and days before my birthday.’ – Parineeti Chopra

‘If someone close to me forgets my birthday, I am heartbroken.’ – Parineeti Chopra

‘I am a birthday person. I am not modest about birthdays.’ – Parineeti Chopra

‘United Nations Day marks the birthday of our founding Charter – the landmark document that embodies the hopes, dreams and aspirations of ‘we the peoples.” – Antonio Guterres

‘For my seventh birthday, my parents gave me a plain, unfinished wooden dollhouse. It had six empty rooms, two floors, a staircase, and a door that swung out onto a little front stoop. The windows opened, and the roof retracted on one side, revealing an attic.’ – J. Courtney Sullivan

‘What turned me into an environmentalist, on my eleventh birthday, was seeing the first strip mine.’ – W. S. Merwin

‘My 21st birthday was probably the worst day of my life.’ – Troy Aikman

‘Oh yes, my best birthday gift was when my dad gifted me my first car in college. It was a Maruti Swift. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. It was so much fun, as I could completely show it off to my friends that I have my own car now and not my dad’s car.’ – Huma Qureshi

‘My 3rd birthday party was ‘Funny Girl’ themed.’ – Beanie Feldstein

‘It turns out I share a birthday with Jose Mourinho. He is exactly 10 years older than me.’ – Brendan Rodgers

‘Reaching F1 was always the ultimate goal, I suppose, ever since driving a go-kart my father had bought me for my fifth birthday.’ – Lance Stroll

‘I was never the kind to throw parties for my birthday. I remember how embarrassed I used to be when they’d make me cut a cake on the sets, and the unit would sing ‘Happy Birthday.” – Hema Malini

‘When I see the kind of passion Sir Alex shows, it is hard to believe he is about to celebrate his 71st birthday.’ – Edwin van der Sar

‘From the age of 17 through my 20s, I was living on my own, so sometimes I wouldn’t even tell anybody it was my birthday. It was not a big thing for me.’ – Ruskin Bond

‘I decided that every year on my birthday, I’m going to release a new clown mask.’ – Shawn Crahan

‘I’m a humungous Browns fan. My 30th birthday was actually at the Browns’ stadium.’ – Johnny Gargano

‘My birthday is generally a very quiet affair.’ – Jackie Shroff

‘I never believed in birthday parties.’ – Sanjay Leela Bhansali

‘During our childhood, my sister and I had no birthday parties. We would take a packet of sweets to school and distribute it to our class-mates. That was it. We were not allowed to go to parties, either.’ – Sanjay Leela Bhansali

‘When I was 13, my parents bought me a mini snooker set for my birthday. From the moment I first held a cue in my hands, I was transfixed.’ – Stephen Hendry

‘I’m the type who minds my own business and am not keen on giving interviews on my mom’s birthday, or my dog’s birthday.’ – Andrea Jeremiah

‘My birthday is always around Thanksgiving, and I always had to have turkey on my birthday. My mom was always, ‘Let’s celebrate your birthday on Thanksgiving.’ My other siblings got to have special dinners they liked. I resented turkey. For a long time, I hated turkey. I’ve kind of gotten over it.’ – Joey Chestnut

‘James Gunn runs his set like a 12-year-old’s birthday party. Every day, he is so excited to come to work.’ – Chris Sullivan

‘My poor kids have accepted that being dropped off late to birthday parties, practices, and yes, school, is just part of the large family package.’ – Rachel Campos-Duffy

‘I share a birthday with Max Beesley and James Nesbitt.’ – Claudia Winkleman

‘I turned away from bikes when I got a bambino kart for my seventh birthday and started doing some karting, just around some cones at home, but I didn’t think at that point I knew I wanted to go into F1, it was more just for fun.’ – Lando Norris

‘I did drama at school and when I was doubling Xena, one time for my birthday mom and dad bought me an acting course ’cause I’ve always liked the performance side of anything.’ – Zoe Bell

‘I spent my 21st birthday chatting with my online friends because my husband had little interest in celebrating with me, and there was no other group of people I’d rather spend time with, even if they weren’t there with me in person.’ – Zoe Quinn

‘On my 7th birthday, in 1970, I left India and came to America: to this land of incredible opportunity.’ – Shiva Ayyadurai

‘Now that I think about it, my 40th birthday was the most anxiety I’ve ever had, and my wedding was also the second time I’ve had that much anxiety. So I’m starting to realize that I can’t be throwing these big bash parties because I need to own that I get anxiety with a lot of people diverting their attention to me.’ – Jeannie Mai

‘I was a fortnight away from my 16th birthday when the fabled 2005 Ashes series ended. My hero-worship throughout it belonged to Ian Bell – though I don’t think I’ve ever made that abundantly clear to him.’ – Jonny Bairstow

‘I have always told my family that I don’t want my birthday to be celebrated and that they shouldn’t get me anything, even though if they didn’t I’d probably write a standup routine about it.’ – Romesh Ranganathan

‘I was exceptionally opinionated as a teenager, never afraid to rant and ruin a birthday party or cinema trip.’ – Sara Pascoe

‘I have a lot of respect for people who really work on their life – they’ve got this great apartment and a good personality, they write the thank-you cards and bake birthday cakes. That’s who I wish I was. When I see people cultivate their own life like that, I admire it.’ – Weyes Blood

‘You are only part of the film industry if you are doing well, let me tell you. You will be invited to parties and flowers will reach you on your birthday. When you are not doing well, you are really an outcast.’ – Farah Khan

‘Aged six, I sailed from South Africa to England by steam ship with my family. It was a three-week journey. I remember crying on my birthday when I didn’t get the enormous teddy bear that was for sale in the ship’s shop but, aside from that, I had a wonderful time.’ – Prue Leith

‘I am a very private person, so on my birthday too I will spend a cozy time with my family and a few close friends!’ – Suniel Shetty

‘My sentence formally was imposed on my mothers 50th Birthday January 24th 1983. The jury recommended it July 1st 1982.’ – Nick Yarris

‘My mum likes to remind me of the birthday treat I asked for when I was just 13… and that was for them to hire a stretch limo for my birthday when we travelled to L.A.’ – Alex Hirsch

‘I found myself in a meeting on my 13th birthday, which I really had no idea the enormity of, but I was in a meeting with the CEO of Atlantic Records, who sort of signed me right then and there as I was playing guitar for him.’ – Cody Simpson

‘There are probably about 50 comedians who would come to my 50th birthday party but I’m not sure how many of them would come to my funeral.’ – Lee Mack

‘I want to feel pampered and special on my birthday.’ – Rashami Desai

‘I always try to work on my birthday.’ – Rashami Desai

‘I never knew anyone who have growing up who had a clown at their birthday party. They are something I think of as being from the past. So I never had strong feelings about them. I do think that they can be creepy, I guess it depends on the clown.’ – Finn Wolfhard

‘Having spent half my time at university studying English literature, I know from experience that reading lists often contain more white men than Jacob Rees-Mogg’s last birthday party.’ – Nish Kumar

‘In Bollywood, birthday celebrations are usual and very carefree.’ – Arbaaz Khan

‘It has to do a lot more than just twerking. It’s feel good music; it makes people have a good time. It doesn’t matter what type of situation they’re in, we bounce all around New Orleans. Weddings, birthday parties, funerals. The whole nine yards, and it’s a happy music, it turns people from a frown to a happy smile.’ – Big Freedia

‘I came out at a very early age. I sat my mom down at my 12th birthday party and told her in front of my friends. She said, ‘Baby, mama already knows, and I’m going to love you regardless.’ Once I got my mom’s support, there was nothing else I needed.’ – Big Freedia

‘Basically, my mum and dad bought me a CD player for my 14th birthday. They didn’t really listen to music at all, but my dad had a couple of tapes that he’d listen to, like Tom Lehrer. My dad was a physicist and Tom Lehrer was like this really weird Harvard class professor, who was really cool because he was also a satirist and pianist.’ – KT Tunstall

‘I was one of six children, brought up by my mother in Swindon after my father died. We had all we needed – food on the table, clothes to wear. When I wanted a drum kit, my mother got me one. When I got into playing guitar, I came down one Christmas or birthday and there was a guitar for me. It amazes me how Mum managed to do it.’ – Gilbert O’Sullivan

‘My mother died on my birthday.’ – Shannon Briggs

‘It was shortly before my 18th birthday when I came out and admitted that I was gay.’ – Conchita Wurst

‘For my 23rd birthday I had a house party that was ’90s themed and I dressed up as Alabama whirly from ‘True Romance.” – Daisy Lowe

‘My younger sister, Clover arrived three days before my seventh birthday and I wanted to sell her. I’d had my mother, stepfather, and nanny Maureen, all to myself, and suddenly there was this bonny baby with green grass eyes that everyone adored.’ – Sophie Dahl

‘My grandma spelled my name wrong until she died. Like literally, birthday cards, mail, everything.’ – Willam Belli

‘Everybody should plant a tree on any happy occasion or birthday and celebrate.’ – Sayaji Shinde

‘Around my 40th birthday, I started to have extraordinary pain in my eyes and it was only happening overnight and I couldn’t figure out what the source was of this but it would literally shoot me out of bed in enormous pain, doubled over.’ – Shannon Bream

‘My daughter learned to say, ‘They’re not even trying to cover!’ before her second birthday.’ – James Holzhauer

‘I’m scared of heights, but for my 30th birthday I’m going to try and get someone to kick me out of a plane and do a parachute jump.’ – Kell Brook

‘We think of the Warped Tour as kind of like everyone’s big birthday party.’ – Chad Gilbert

‘If I could go back and tell 13-year-old self that I would be on screen with Lisa Kudrow, spending my birthday on a ghost train in Blackpool with her, I would have been beside myself.’ – Mae Martin

‘When I look on my mantelpiece and see these cards wishing me a happy 100th birthday, I can’t believe it.’ – Vera Lynn

‘One time, a hedge fund gentleman in Connecticut brought in a bunch of professional wrestlers and myself at a very hefty price for his son’s 11th birthday.’ – Michael Buffer

‘In fact, my mother got a ‘Bigg Boss’ themed cake on my 17th birthday because I was so obsessed with the show. I am one of those obsessed fans who ask everyone to keep quiet when the show comes on TV.’ – Ananya Panday

‘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.’ – Gino D’Acampo

‘I miss my mom and dad. They brought me into this world and I wish they were with me on my birthday. So I don’t celebrate it much.’ – Sonu Sood

‘I’d go out with my family and my close ones, who have been by my side through the years, but I am not the one who will throw parties on his birthday.’ – Sonu Sood

‘I am very shy by nature and I won’t even have told people about my birthday, had I not been an actor.’ – Sonu Sood

‘When I was eight we went to Las Vegas for my brother Michael’s 21st birthday, and my bedtime was pushed back quite late. I was always waking up as everyone was rolling in from their night out. It was an eye-opener!’ – Spencer Matthews

‘My second freshman year of college, that’s year two of seven, my father got very sick and though he was going to die. He gave me a Rolex, a bottom of the line one. I wore that watch everyday. He didn’t die. On my 40th birthday, he gave me a very nice Rolex that belonged to him. That’s the one thing we connect on: the watch.’ – Bert Kreischer

‘I was about to get on a plane and take my husband away for his birthday, I thought oh I have tummy ache. I went into A&E and they said ‘oh, you need surgery,’ it was really weird – it was appendicitis.’ – Emma Willis

‘I was concerned about being 40 and for my 40th birthday my wish was to go see Cher, and I got to meet her.’ – Martie Maguire

‘The first time I ever heard Airborne Toxic Event, my friend was turning 11 or something. And he had a paintball birthday party where him and me and two of our other friends went out to these paintball courses and I got obliterated. I don’t think I got one hit.’ – Finneas

‘I get bashful in the spotlight. Even at home or at a birthday party, I hate that stuff.’ – Julius Peppers

‘My father took me and my about-to-be-traumatized friends to Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001’ for my 10th birthday party.’ – David Hewlett

‘I would recommend ‘Lesson Of The Evil’ to be given as a DVD gift on a child’s 15th birthday. In Japan, children under 15 are not allowed to watch it. Plus, ‘Lesson Of The Evil’ is one film where the older you get, the more you will be able to understand and enjoy the film.’ – Takashi Miike

‘I have this PTSD from a birthday party where no one showed up.’ – Emily Hampshire

‘I was born on Dev Anand’s birthday so I believe… the older I get, the better I become.’ – Chunky Pandey

‘Fans are always going out of their way and doing so much, be it my birthday or any festival or occasion or most of the time nothing at all and there couldn’t be a better way than connecting with them personally and giving them access to my world.’ – Priyamani

‘I’m going to hide – I always do on my birthday, I never celebrate birthdays.’ – Laila Rouass

‘I spent my 40th birthday on the stage of the Palladium in ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” – Michael Ball

‘My father discovered that our family had made long-case clocks in Warwickshire in the early 18th century. He managed to track down a fine example through an English antiquarian and horologist and gifted it to me for my 30th birthday.’ – Alexander Gilkes

‘I find the best birthday plans are the unplanned ones.’ – Diana Penty

‘There’s definitely something special about a working birthday, it’s the perfect way to bring in the new birthday year!’ – Diana Penty

‘Everyone who reaches a milestone birthday in their lives has an opportunity to truly appreciate the fact that presumably we have acquired all the gifts that maturity and age can bring us.’ – Judith Durham

‘On my 50th birthday the Rolling Stones played at my party at Grosvenor House. That’s not bad for a kid from Tooting.’ – Jimmy White

‘For me, normal means freedom to live life as we choose, from cramming into packed planes to go on holiday to crowding into pubs for birthday parties.’ – Claire Fox

‘My son told me to stop singing ‘Happy Birthday’ when he was 4.’ – Ruth Westheimer

‘I saw these little trucks that I was obsessed with, and my dad got me one for my eighth birthday. That was the start of my racing career.’ – Hailie Deegan

‘March 15th is the most important day of the year. It’s my birthday.’ – Maxwell Jacob Friedman

‘First I wanted number seven since my roll number in school was seven. But, someone was already wearing jersey number seven. Then a BCCI manager said I should take 18 since my birthday is on 18 July. At that time, I didn’t know that Virat Kohli also wears number 18.’ – Smriti Mandhana

‘My birthday, I don’t really see it as a special day, to be honest. It’s just another day for me.’ – Zion Williamson

‘I’ve been asking my partner for a dog for a while and she kept saying no. She was obviously keeping it for a birthday surprise, and when I came home from Rotherham, Hugo was sat on the sofa waiting for me. It was a really nice surprise.’ – Daniel James

‘I was born with ‘Aashiqui.’ I am reborn on my birthday with ‘Cabaret.” – Rahul Roy

‘I reflected a lot, I thought a lot on my 50th birthday. It has been one of the most important birthdays in my life, not in terms of celebration but in terms of retrospect.’ – Rakesh Jhunjhunwala

‘Yes, Leander locked me out. I’d gone with my child for a birthday party. Leander and his mother were running out of the building as I was entering. They even put my clothes in boxes and threw them out.’ – Rhea Pillai

‘I joined the SDP as a founder member a few days after my 18th birthday in 1981. I was a councillor, activist and parliamentary candidate for the SDP and its successor party, the Liberal Democrats, for 14 years before joining Labour when Tony Blair became leader and abolished Labour’s old clause IV – committing to general nationalisation – in 1995.’ – Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis

‘I remember it was Dr. Seuss’ birthday, and I got to read to the little ones and that was just an awesome experience. I remember when I was a young knucklehead and having that access to an after-school program in my community. It’s something that hits home to me and something I wanted to always be a part of.’ – Travis Kelce

‘I have a very good relation with rain. When I was born in Orissa, there were severe floods. Even now it rains on my birthday.’ – Varun Sandesh

‘Kabir has special place for police in his heart. Whenever he sees a policeman, he wants to meet them. That’s why we celebrated his birthday with a police-themed party.’ – Amrapali Gupta

‘My two sons are more excited about my father’s birthday than him. Baba is a quiet person by nature and feels shy at any kind of celebration.’ – Soham Chakraborty

‘We’re not girls who lunch unless it’s a birthday or special occasion.’ – Kathy Hilton

‘I get asked, on a sort of daily basis, ‘It’s my wife’s 30th birthday, can you set her a task?” – Alex Horne

‘We Kapoors are very family-minded people. For us only family is important and we make it a point to attend each other’s birthday parties and special occasions.’ – Randhir Kapoor

‘Working on good music is what brings happiness to my heart and I cannot think of a better way to spend my birthday.’ – Tulsi Kumar

‘We Indians are musical- and dance-minded people. If a child is born or on a wedding, birthday, we dance. But when a song starts unreasonably, it irritates me.’ – Waheeda Rehman

‘I’ll sometimes forget it’s my birthday, but my mom has taken to calling me at the exact time of my birth, so that’ll usually remind me. It was an important moment for me, obviously, but I guess a more memorable one for her.’ – Steve Kornacki

‘Katherine Johnson is a shining example of what you can truly do with hard work and persistence. Under what had to be the most difficult of circumstances she persevered and stuck to her values. She is a real West Virginia and American hero. To honor her legacy every August 26th, on her birthday, is the least we can do.’ – Jim Justice

‘Prince Philip had formally ‘retired’ in the summer of 2017, a couple of months after his 96th birthday, because the Queen encouraged him to do so. She wanted to stop him ‘pushing himself all the time’. She had become anxious about him.’ – Gyles Brandreth

‘I don’t know if there are many misconceptions. One is that my birthday is on Valentine’s Day. It’s on 7 June.’ – Helen Baxendale

‘I remember the one time, when I was in the 10th grade and the school president, my entire school had surprised me with a birthday song during the morning assembly. It will always be a very special memory!’ – Sherlyn Chopra

‘I received a call for getting selected in ‘Cartel’ on December 4, my birthday. I was on cloud nine and absolutely overjoyed hearing the news.’ – Divya Agarwal

‘I’m a Virgo. That is me. To a tee. Me and Beyonce. And Amy Winehouse! Same birthday.’ – Lolly Adefope

‘I have got a vintage Omega 1949 watch I love… It was a present that I got for my birthday.’ – Liz Kendall

‘My mom’s always asking me for hits and stolen bases and home runs and different things on Mother’s Day and her birthday.’ – Trea Turner

‘Towards the tail end of primary school, I was pulled aside by my headteacher and told I was joining a scheme for ‘gifted and talented’ children, that would run from my 10th birthday until I was 16.’ – Dawn Foster

‘People kept reminding me. They were like, What was I doing on my 21st birthday? I was in Vegas getting drunk. You’re actually walking the red carpet. You’re hanging out with Patrick Stewart. Not everybody does that.” – Isa Briones

‘I avoid oily food and in fact my friends get mad at me as I don’t have cake even on my own birthday. I do have a sweet tooth though for chocolates.’ – Shakti Mohan

‘I was a dress-up Spider-Man for kids’ birthday parties for a while.’ – Simu Liu

‘The things people use Pinterest for tend to be universal. The core usage is every day, common, universal things. What am I going to eat for dinner? How should my house look? What gift should I get for my partner? What should my kid’s birthday party look like?’ – Evan Sharp

‘I met my brother when I was a month shy of my second birthday – he came into this world in style. I believe my father popped champagne in the hospital corridors and made sure all the nurses got a sip.’ – Shweta Bachchan Nanda

‘I was at a birthday party and a truck backed up and the wheels ran over my chest. I lost part of my lung and my liver.’ – Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

‘My mom and pop took me to the Apollo Theater on my thirteenth birthday to see Heavy D and Keith Sweat. It was late at night, up on 125th Street, and it was crazy!’ – Jadakiss

‘In December of 1990, just before my eighth birthday, I left China for the United States. My father was a political dissident, and after he was released from prison, we joined my mother in a little town in the mountains of Utah. It was quite a change from my hometown of Shanghai, a city of 25 million people.’ – Leana S. Wen

‘Ever since I was a little lad, the sun has seemed to shine during my birthday weekend.’ – John Whaite

‘My birthday is two days before Valentine’s Day so it has always been about that rather than romance.’ – A. J. Odudu

‘The highs of having a big family were that there was always someone to play with and you get loads of birthday presents. The lows were sharing the bathroom.’ – A. J. Odudu

‘My mum’s from a very rural village in Nigeria, she grew up in a war, and for her it was really important that my brothers and I knew how to fend for ourselves. My dad bought me a Swiss army knife for my 13th birthday and we used to go camping and he showed me how to light fires.’ – Vick Hope

‘I don’t know anyone that doesn’t get emotional around their birthday.’ – Alana Haim

‘Me and Johnny Thunders had the same birthday. We would always celebrate in a club called Max’s Kansas City. We were very close friends at Max’s Kansas City and CBGBs, where we all hung out.’ – Marky Ramone

‘I once gave someone a self-help book for their birthday, called something like ‘stop being such a lazy pig.’ And you know what, they didn’t even thank me!’ – Lou Sanders

‘I’ve been fighting since I was 16, fighting in the UFC since my 21st birthday.’ – Jeremy Stephens

‘Every birthday my wife Kathy re-creates what my mom made me on my birthday, a simple pot roast, that she slathers with cream of mushroom and Lipton Onion soup and then simmers it all day on the stove.’ – Steve Doocy

‘Derek actually had started with The Allman Brothers in June of ’99, right around his 20th birthday, and I was 28. I told him he was too young for me, but everybody knows he’s an older soul than I am.’ – Susan Tedeschi

‘I played with Buddy Guy on his 63rd birthday and got to bring him a cake. And I played with B.B. King on his 73rd birthday and got to bring him a cake, too.’ – Susan Tedeschi

‘This is what I dreamed about. Playing at Wembley in front of a full crowd and my family, scoring on my 20th birthday.’ – Bukayo Saka

‘I love my birthday because it’s lined up as doubles: 11/11.’ – Peaches

‘I removed Trevor Francis on his birthday and offered to post his P45 in his birthday card.’ – Simon Jordan

‘I’ve known Mr. Trump since he hosted I think it was my 21st birthday party on his yacht years ago. He’s an amazing guy.’ – Al B. Sure

‘When my partner Garfield turned 40, I spent a year organising his surprise birthday party in Norfolk at a stately home called Gunthorpe Hall – that was pretty spectacular!’ – Andi Oliver

‘I want to remember my daughter’s birthday when she’s 18. I don’t want to forget it. I don’t want to forget her name. I don’t want to forget where I put my car keys every day. The best way for me to do that is to protect myself. The best way to protect myself in the Octagon is simple: If I put you on your butt, you can’t hit me hard.’ – Curtis Blaydes

‘I don’t want to play on my birthday again.’ – Aaron Ramsdale

‘I always was in some form of communication with my real pops. I kept an ongoing relationship with my biological father which will only get better with time. We share the same birthday. Everybody says I look just like him but having a stepfather like Diddy is a blessing.’ – Quincy Brown

‘The biggest achievement of my life has to be when I was wished by Paris Hilton on my birthday.’ – Himanshi Khurana

‘I love Hallowe’en – more than my birthday, usually. It’s always a fun night, with trick-or-treating and fancy-dress parties.’ – Joe Sugg

‘I landed in Indianapolis on my 17th birthday. There to greet me was my new American family, the Bakers. I had barely blown out the candles on my birthday cake before the question came, ‘So, do you want to go watch a football game? We need a kicker.” – Morten Andersen

‘I don’t like my birthday to be an occasion for fanfare.’ – Simi Garewal

‘I spend my birthday at home close to the people who matter to me. That’s the way I like it.’ – Simi Garewal

‘I don’t believe in celebrating my birthday or in having a party.’ – Shatrughan Sinha