I think my mom and dad have an incredible work ethic, and we've grown up around it.

My mom is Jamaican and Chinese, and my dad is Polish and African-American, so I had a pretty diverse culinary background to work with.

I don't consult anyone - not my mother, not my father, anyone - about my work. And I must add that neither Dad nor Mom interfere in my work.

I think our dad and our mom have always told us that in racing we're a team, and we work together, and that's how it's always been, and I think that's how it's always going to be.

We had bills to pay. My dad wasn't working, and it was tough for my mom. People were always raising the rent, so I had to work, too. Everybody in the house worked to pay the rent.

My dad was a Republican. My mom - my mom was mostly a Republican, although she voted for McGovern over Nixon. She was really proud of that. She also did, however, work for Trent Lott.

My dad died when I was three so my mom had to raise four kids on her own, and I think there's a part of me that pulls upon having watched my mom do that our whole lives. She had to make it work.

The thing that means most to me is the joy that my mom and my dad got because of my career... They raised seven children on domestic wages, in a city like San Francisco, and did nothing but work, work, work.

My dad was a firefighter for almost 30 years. My mom worked her way up from a secretary to vice president of her own company. They taught me to work hard for everything and take nothing for granted. That's how I play.

Not only would my parents work full hours, my parents both woke up at 5 A.M. My dad left the house at 5 A.M. to go to the fish market to pick out his own fish, and my mom woke up at 5 A.M. to wake me up in order to get me ready for skating before school.

Both my mom and my dad have always included me in intelligent conversations about people, about characters, about how people work. My dad and my mom still read all scripts that I find interesting. I send them an e-mail, and I'm like, 'Okay, I have my eye on this,' or whatever.

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