“My guess is my brother would call his mom and his dad pretty regularly, a lot more than I probably did.”
Fatherhood does not come with a manual, which is probably why so many people have tried to write about it. These quotes cover the pride, worry, humor, and fierce love that come with being a dad — or having one who shaped who you became.
“My dad worked two jobs and moved us to the suburbs, and just being a black person, I went through a lot of racism and being called names and being bullied every single day. And it was hard. I didn't have any friends.”
“My guess is my brother would call his mom and his dad pretty regularly, a lot more than I probably did.”
“You know, my dad served in the President's Cabinet after his time as a governor. He told me he enjoyed being governor a lot more. Now, I understand why. If I do my job well, I can make a difference in people's lives and I can help our children realize their dreams.”
“When my mom ran for the Senate, my dad was there for her every step of the way. I can still hear her saying in her beautiful voice, 'Why should women have any less say than men, about the great decisions facing our nation?'”
“The founder of the Mona Foundation actually knew my dad for years, and the more I learned about it, the more I realized I really found the perfect charity. It sponsors schools and educational initiatives all over the planet.”
“I stopped loving my father a long time ago. What remained was the slavery to a pattern.”
“My mother and dad were big animal lovers, too. I just don't know how I would have lived without animals around me. I'm fascinated by them - both domestic pets and the wild community. They just are the most interesting things in the world to me, and it's made such a difference in my lifetime.”
“My dad didn't drive - the only dad I knew who didn't.”
“My dad was a bartender. My mom was a cashier, a maid and a stock clerk at K-Mart. They never made it big. They were never rich. And yet they were successful. Because just a few decades removed from hopelessness, they made possible for us all the things that had been impossible for them.”
“The surprising thing about fatherhood was finding my inner mush. Now I want to share it with the world.”
“I love my dad and we have a very good relationship now.”
“I feel like I've lived quite a sheltered life, like my mom and dad were quite protective of me.”
“I go off and make movies I come home, and I'm a dad and I hang with my girls.”
“My dad was a militant atheist, or is a militant atheist. My mum was sort of bought up in a religious family because she was a Protestant from Ireland but wasn't especially religious.”
“My mother taught public school, went to Harvard and then got her master's there and taught fifth and sixth grade in a public school. My dad had a more working-class lifestyle. He didn't go to college. He was an auto mechanic and a bartender and a janitor at Harvard.”
“My dad is a Jack Nicholson lookalike and a frustrated performer, my mother's into reading and poetry. I suppose the thing I owe them most is my confidence.”