As they say in Italy Italians were eating with a knife and fork when the French were still eating each other. The Medici family had to bring their Tuscan cooks up there so they could make something edible.

There are just so many stories that are buried on family trees.

I love where I'm from. I don't live there because of the circumstances but all my family is there. It's what's inside it's not what's outside that determines the culture and the feeling.

Santa Barbara is my hood. I mean it's not much of a hood but it is definitely like my hood. I claim Santa Barbara like I claim my family. I'm going to be married and buried there.

But if each man could have his own house a large garden to cultivate and healthy surroundings - then I thought there will be for them a better opportunity of a happy family life.

I can't tell you how scary it can be walking onto a movie and suddenly joining this family it's like going to somebody else's Christmas dinner everyone knows everyone and you're there and you're not quite sure what you're supposed to be doing.

My parents were drawn to the idea that there was space and opportunity in Australia. For the meagre sum of £10 you could sail your entire family out to Australia so that's what my father chose to do.

With a family of six there is always something to make create and do together.

My other family is Fleetwood Mac. I don't need the money but there's an emotional need for me to go on the road again. There's a love there we're a band of brothers.

There's a bond among a kitchen staff I think. You spend more time with your chef in the kitchen than you do with your own family.

Over the last couple of years I've really worked toward balancing my life out more having a little bit more time with friends family and my boyfriend. There was a period of time when they were way down the list. It was all about music and touring and if everything fell by the wayside so be it.

My kids say if there's any family dinner that doesn't result in somebody crying it's not a good dinner. They cry because it helps relieve them of a guilt or some onerous emotional burden. It's like a family tradition.

There can be hope only for a society which acts as one big family not as many separate ones.

And when I was young my family was perfectly nice. I write a lot about it as you noticed. But it was rather limited. I think I don't think anyone in my family would really feel I'd done them an injustice by saying that. We didn't see many people. There were many books. It was as if I wanted to get away from home.

There's a schizoid streak within the family anyway so I dare say that I'm affected by that. The majority of the people in my family have been in some kind of mental institution as for my brother he doesn't want to leave. He likes it very much.

Children in a family are like flowers in a bouquet: there's always one determined to face in an opposite direction from the way the arranger desires.

In God's family there are no outsiders no enemies.

Life goes by really fast and it seems that there are times when you're burying a lot of friends and family. And then there are times that feel really precious and everybody is doing okay. This is one of those times.

There are no adequate substitutes for father mother and children bound together in a loving commitment to nurture and protect. No government no matter how well-intentioned can take the place of the family in the scheme of things.

There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.

There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom.

My wife and I both come from Irish families. There are two kinds of Irish families: the hitting kind and the kidding kind. If you're fortunate - and both of us are - you come from the kidding kind of Irish family.

My father was brought up in an orphanage in the Catskills. He was a factory worker. And because his family wasn't there for him family was everything. We could disagree inside the house but outside the house it was us against the world. So when I became a drag actor he looked sideways but said okay.

Where would you be without friends? The people to pick you up when you need lifting? We come from homes far from perfect so you end up almost parent and sibling to your friends - your own chosen family. There's nothing like a really loyal dependable good friend. Nothing.