Thank goodness I had a great family growing up a great foundation. But I will say my faith my parents my family all that stuff is very very important. And I'll say that until the day I die.

Everything I am I owe to my faith and secondly to parents who were old school.

I looked at some of the statues of Jesus they were just stones with no life. When they said that God is three I was puzzled even more but could not argue. I believed it simply because I had to have respect for the faith of my parents.

The parents have a right to say that no teacher paid by their money shall rob their children of faith in God and send them back to their homes skeptical or infidels or agnostics or atheists.

My parents shared not only an improbable love they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name Barack or blessed believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

It was seldom that I attended any religious meetings as my parents had not much faith in and were never so unfortunate as to unite themselves with any of the religious sects.

My work ethic came from my parents and my fear of failure. I came from a small predominantly black school and I didn't want to let them down.

As might be supposed my parents were quite poor but we somehow never seemed to lack anything we needed and I never saw a trace of discontent or a failure in cheerfulness over their lot in life as indeed over anything.

I think some parents now look at a youngster failing as the final thing. It's a process and failure is part of the process. I would like it if the teacher and the parents would connect more. I think that used to be but we're losing a little bit of that right now.

I have always been pushed by the negative. The apparent failure of a play sends me back to my typewriter that very night before the reviews are out. I am more compelled to get back to work than if I had a success.

Mohammed was not an apparent failure. He was a dazzling success politically as well as spiritually and Islam went from strength to strength to strength.

Every great work every big accomplishment has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision and often just before the big achievement comes apparent failure and discouragement.

Indecision and delays are the parents of failure.

We failed but in the good providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing.

When you grow up in a family of languages you develop a kind of casual fluency so that languages though differently colored all seem transparent to experience.

Although we have in theory abolished human slavery recognized women's rights and stopped child labor we continue to enslave other species who if we simply pay attention show quite clearly that they experience parental love pain and the desire for freedom just as we do.

My experience with both my parents is that grief has a lot of down sad things but I was also really emotionally raw in the first year after each of them passed. Flowers smelled more intensely my relationships were hotter and I was more willing to risk. I was going for it a lot more. I was 'unsober' and I wasn't playing by my rules.

I was an only child. I've known only children. From this experience I do believe that the children should outnumber the parents.

My parents had an experience of life that is as opposite to mine as you can imagine.

I think being a parent is the most challenging thing you do. That's why we're here. It's at the heart of what it is to be a human being. It's the ultimate experience because it questions everything about who you are. But it's difficult.

The bullied straight kid goes home to a shoulder to cry on and support and can talk freely about his experience at school and why he's being bullied. I couldn't go home and open up to my parents.

The monsters of our childhood do not fade away neither are they ever wholly monstrous. But neither in my experience do we ever reach a plane of detachment regarding our parents however wise and old we may become. To pretend otherwise is to cheat.

Parents it seems have an almost Olympian persistence when it comes to suggesting more secure and lucrative lines of work for their children who have the notion that writing is an actual profession. I say this from experience.

The character and history of each child may be a new and poetic experience to the parent if he will let it.