“I'm just glad I was able to return to some of that innocence and beauty I had as a child when I started my own family, and my children brought me back some of that spirit.”

“My father, who died a few years ago, was a good, simple, very honest man. His faith and affection for his family was just unassailable, without question.”

“My mom was a professional. My dad and mom met each other in a movie called 'New Faces of 1937.' My mom went under the name Thelma Leeds, and she did a few movies, and she was really a great singer, and when she married my dad and started to have a family, she sang at parties.”

“If you see a black family, it's looting, but if it's a white family they are looking for food.”

“I think the Hispanic community, the values that resonate in our community, are fundamentally conservative. They are faith, family, patriotism.”

“As a general thing, when a woman wears the pants in a family, she has a good right to them.”

“All the songs I write are about human dynamics, whether it's with girlfriends, boyfriends, or family.”

“A woman can take care of the family. It takes a man to provide structure, to provide stability.”

“At best the family teaches the finest things human beings can learn from one another generosity and love. But it is also, all too often, where we learn nasty things like hate, rage and shame.”

“My mom is the backbone not just of my family but of many families.”

“My dad would give me $10, which is a lot of money when you're 9, to sing at church, on tables at restaurants, at family functions, just about anywhere.”

“The first-born in every family is always dreaming for an imaginary older brother or sister who will look out for them.”

“If you live in a good neighborhood, you drive home and there's a bank. There's grocery stores and big houses - but no motels. What that tells you psychologically is you protect your money and buy good things for your family to eat in your nice big house.”

“What must it be like for a little boy to read that daddy never loved mummy?”

“My whole damn family was nice. I don't think I've imagined it. It's true. Maybe it has to do with being brought up as Christian Scientists. Half of my relatives were Readers or Practitioners in the church.”

“I'm a Republican. I don't want to go to heaven and have to face my family up there and tell them I voted for a Democrat.”

“A growing awareness of the depth of popular attachment to the family has led some liberals to concede that family is not just a buzzword for reaction.”

“I mean, I look at my dad. He was twenty when he started having a family, and he was always the coolest dad. He did everything for his kids, and he never made us feel like he was pressured. I know that it must be a great feeling to be a guy like that.”

“I love children and I get along with them great. It's just that I believe if you're going to be a parent, there has to be something inside you that says, 'I want a family.' I don't feel that sense of urgency.”

“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.”

“There are things that you cannot talk to your mother and father about, there are things that you cannot talk to your children about.”