As you get older, you have more responsibilities; you have more commitments, more events, kids, you’re married now. You still have all the things that you’ve had, plus you just keep adding.

I don’t know if I could do this with the same energy, and in the same way – all the costume changes and glitter and hair and makeup – all the time. When I’m in my 50s, I kind of think I’ll want to be in a garden.

I’m very at ease, and I like it. I never thought I would be such a family-oriented guy; I didn’t think that was part of my makeup. But somebody said that as you get older you become the person you always should have been, and I feel that’s happening to me. I’m rather surprised at who I am, because I’m actually like my dad!

You don’t have to deserve your mother’s love. You have to deserve your father’s.

You see, at the end of the day, my most important title is still ‚mom-in-chief.‘ My daughters are still the heart of my heart and the center of my world.

Part of our tradition as black women is that we are universalists. Black children, yellow children, red children, brown children, that is the black woman’s normal, day-to-day relationship. In my family alone, we are about four different colors.

We will always be a family. Always.

Medicines are only fit for old people.

I am proud to have been born in Iowa. Through the eyes of a ten-year-old boy, it was a place of adventure and daily discoveries – the wonder of the growing crops, the excitements of the harvest, the journeys to the woods for nuts and hunting, the joys of snowy winters, the comfort of the family fireside, of good food and tender care.

Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.

I had a really good childhood up until I was nine, then a classic case of divorce really affected me.

You know, my Grandpop Finnegan used to have an expression: he used to say, ‚Joey, the guy in Olyphant’s out of work, it’s an economic slowdown. When your brother-in-law’s out of work, it’s a recession. When you’re out of work, it’s a depression.‘

My mom and I have always been there for each other. We had some tough times, but she was always there for me.

I’m married to an Italian woman, and I used to love cooking Italian at home, because it’s one-pot cooking. But my wife does not approve of my Italian cooking.

I take my kids to school. And if I go to work, I go to work, and they visit me on set. I come home. I have dinner with my family. I have breakfast with my family. I have a very solid, very warm home.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

There is nothing so difficult to marry as a large nose.

Sometimes you can’t prioritise family and you feel guilty.

My parents were the same in the pulpit as they were at home. I think that’s where a lot of preachers‘ kids get off base sometimes. Because they don’t see the same things at both places.

Politics doesn’t make strange bedfellows – marriage does.

Endorsements are a reward for good performance on the field, and the commitments made after signing them need to be done.

I prefer directing to acting. There is huge freedom that comes from being behind the camera. It brings a lot of responsibilities as well but is intensely rewarding.

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.

Starting at about, I guess, forever, I’ve always looked forward to getting older. When I was 14, I couldn’t wait to be 16 and get a driver’s license.

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

You know you’re getting old when you get that one candle on the cake. It’s like, ‚See if you can blow this out.‘

Basically my wife was immature. I’d be at home in the bath and she’d come in and sink my boats.

I’ve never had a divorce, but I’ve seen so many of my friends, my sister, my family go through that stuff, so I try to write for the people that can’t write about it. I take on their sorrow, so I’m able to kind of express it, or their joy.

Being a housewife and a mother is the biggest job in the world, but if it doesn’t interest you, don’t do it – I would have made a terrible mother.

We’re African-American and we work together as a family, so people assume we’re like the Jacksons. But I didn’t have parents using me to get out of a bad situation.

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

I’m getting a wrinkle above my eyebrow because I just can’t stop lifting it, and I love that you know.

We should all start to live before we get too old.

I have noticed… that men usually leave married women alone and are inclined to treat all wives with respect. This is no great credit to married women.

I have the problems of, I must confess, old age.

My father opened a restaurant. It’s so amazing… it’s so freaking delicious, but I’m telling you I gain five pounds every time I go in there.

I would be married, but I’d have no wife, I would be married to a single life.

Family home evening is more for the purpose of teaching values and gospel principles, displaying talents and enjoying different kinds of family fun and activities.

I wasn’t going to shy away from getting married when I did and having a baby young and starting a family, even with the job that I chose.

When I was a teenager, my biggest lessons came from Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley. I learned so much from opening up for those artists, and it also taught me how to treat your opening acts and make them feel like they’re part of a family, not just a tour.

When I was married, I definitely went through a lying period.

Tony Visconti and I had been wanting to work together again for a few years now. Both of us had fairly large commitments and for a long time we couldn’t see a space in which we could get anything together.

Jack was out kissing babies while I was out passing bills. Someone had to tend the store.

I’ve told Billy if I ever caught him cheating, I wouldn’t kill him because I love his children and they need a dad. But I would beat him up. I know where all of his sports injuries are.

I come from a family of 12, so I kind of got a little lost as a child.

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.

Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.

I think it’s good for a woman to put on a bit of weight when she gets older – it looks better. But a man has to stay balanced.

We want our marriage to be a triumph, not a tragedy.

The events that I have attended to mark my Diamond Jubilee have been a humbling experience. It has touched me deeply to see so many thousands of families, neighbors and friends celebrating together in such a happy atmosphere.

When I was young, an eccentric uncle decided to teach me how to lie. Not, he explained, because he wanted me to lie, but because he thought I should know how it’s done so I would recognise when I was being lied to.

I was raised a Catholic on both sides of the family. I went to a Catholic grade school and thought everybody in the country was Catholic, because that’s all I ever was associated with.

Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.

When I was growing up, I wanted to adopt, because I was aware there were kids that didn’t have parents.

I feel only my friends and family need to know what is happening in my personal life.

There will be gay couples; it will exist. It is not very nice that people who are married – who divorce in three seconds – don’t want protection for the others. The legal system should protect everyone, not just the few people who think they are above everybody else because they are married.

‚Unforgiven‘ is probably an example of a script that I liked right away but thought, ‚This is great, but I’d like to do this when I’m older.‘ So I stuck it in the drawer for ten years and then took it out.

One thing they never tell you about child raising is that for the rest of your life, at the drop of a hat, you are expected to know your child’s name and how old he or she is.

Our Nation must defend the sanctity of marriage.

Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it.

Going home helps the content.