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"My dad grew up in western Nebraska. I'd visit all the time as a kid, and it's very much like the Wild West. It felt to me like a cowboy movie. Stuff like that made me become this dreamer at a young age."

- Kevin Morby, singer

“This is my first time (in Nebraska), and I’ve documented it very well into my journal. I’m happy to be here.�

-- Karl-Anthony Towns, NBA player

"I find Ugg boots really comforting... Because they remind me that we live in a place you can still get away with, even get excited by, Ugg boots. In fashionable places, you have to pretend that you're over them, or that you've always hated them. But in Nebraska, you can still be happy about new Ugg boots. That's nice. There's no end to the innocence."

-- Rainbow Rowell, author

"I'll never lose my roots. I think I'm too close to my family for that. I still make my trip back to Nebraska every year, and I still love going back to Texas where I grew up, as well. I've just kind of had to mature a little bit more and get used to a little bit different style of life."

- Tennis player Andy Roddick

“I couldn’t be prouder of my state. When I grew up there, it was the greatest time in my life. I’ll always try to mention my home state.�

- Dan Whitney, aka Larry the Cable Guy

"If we wanted a model of how sports should be, you go to Nebraska and experience that. If you love sports, if you love college football, go to Nebraska, make an effort to go to Nebraska and watch a game."

- Merril Hoge, former NFL player and ESPN analyst

"Like a restless kid from a small town, Lincoln wants to prove to you that it’s not a hick. All the same, the country comforts of its steakhouses and honky-tonks make you want to put your arms around it as though it were a big, shaggy sheepdog."

-- Author and columnist Meghan Daum

"I have a simple rule: when I'm on TV, I'm not talking to just my anchor or my colleague on my right. I'm talking to America. I look into the lens, and in my head, I'm talking to somebody in Nebraska. Why Nebraska? Why the Cornhusker State? I have no idea. But it feels like it's a good place to talk to people."

- Political analyst Donna Brazile

"I had a tremendous time shooting in Nebraska. I like that state a lot, all over it."

- Actor Sean Penn

"My mom is painfully sweet; she's from Nebraska."

- Actress Gabrielle Union

"Yes, my fellow citizens, despite what the original Constitution of the United States says about the qualifications for statehood and the guarantee of representation in Congress, by every measure that truly matters in America (bigness, crowdedness, awesomeness, Texasness), Nebraska doesn't deserve its star on the American flag."

- Writer/producer Kevin Bleyer

"I still can't shake the Nebraska off of me."

- Actor Andrew Rannells

"You appreciate Nebraska when you have left it, and you suddenly get a yearning for the Sandhills, your old neighborhood."

- Comedian Dick Cavett

"The openness of rural Nebraska certainly influenced me. That openness, in a way, fosters the imagination. But growing up, Lincoln wasn't a small town. It was a college town. It had record stores and was a liberal place."

- Musician Matthew Sweet