Sara Corpening

It’s much worse to read criticism about your son than yourself.

Your siblings are the only people in the world who know what it’s like to have been brought up the way you were.

I’ve known people that was a part of a family and always feel that the family liked everyone else but them. That hurts, and that’s as deep a hurt as you can possibly get. I’ve known people that would have problems with their love life. This is kind of how blues began – out of feeling misused, mistreated. Feeling like they had nobody to turn to. Blues don’t necessarily have to be sung by a person that came from Mississippi as I did, because there are people having problems all over the world.

I want my sons to grow up in a world where they’d never think boys are better than girls or that black is better than white.

I’m going to let people know that it’s cool to have a child and be young and still be a good mom. It’s really tough, but I’m doing it.

I learned in those eight years is that home is where you make it, and we were in the White House for eight years, but it wasn’t the house. It was us in it. It was our value and our love for each other.

Up until I was 12 my sisters used to dress me up as a girl and introduce me as ‘Claudia’! Twelve was a turning point as I moved to a mixed school and then I became cool and discovered hair gel.

You have to love your children unselfishly. That is hard. But it is the only way.

When I’m happier and healthier, my family is happier and healthier, and it affects how I interact with my friends and the people I work with.

Nothing can stop me from loving my brother.

You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.

They say that no matter how old you become, when you are with your siblings, you revert back to childhood.

Growing up, I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in, you gotta stand in the doorway. He has to get through you first before he gets into the house to get your family. I’m one of those guys who wants to be in that door.

I always sort of felt like the eight years that Barack was president, it was sort of like having the good parent at home. You know, the responsible parent, the one who told you to eat your carrots and go to bed on time.

I am lucky because my family are comfortably off. My father has his own glass business.