One of my first role models was Eugene Lang, a wealthy businessman who went back to his elementary school in East Harlem and addressed the sixth-grade class. He looked out at that sea of faces and said, “If any of you wants to go to college, I will pay for it.”
My parents have not insisted that we go to college, but she wanted us to learn. Teacher, librarian, secretary, nurse. All my siblings were employed. But I wanted to be the boss, an independent contractor.
I was brought up on rock-‘n’-roll. It was sort of funny because I couldn’t get interested in anything else – I tried and tried but I couldn’t get into science…or mathematics, I just cut myself off from anything else there was to get interested in.
![Bette Midler Quote - [On Helen Reddy:] She ought to be arrested for loitering in front of an orchestra.](https://minimalistquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/on-helen-reddy-she-ought-to-be-arrested-for-loiter-683x1024.jpg)
