Brad and I have never wanted our kids to be actors, but we also want them to be around film and be a part of Mommy and Daddy’s life and for it not to be kept from them, either. We just want them to have a good, healthy relationship with it.

It was a privilege to pray with Governor Romney – for his family and our country.

I don’t want people saying, ‚Should we get a female director?‘ I want to hear, ‚Should we get a great director for this movie?‘

Parents and teachers, learn to listen, then listen to learn from children.

I live in Puerto Rico, my family lives in Puerto Rico, my friends. What happens in Puerto Rico matters to me.

My grandmother took me to church on Sunday all day long, every Sunday into the night. Then Monday evening was the missionary meeting. Tuesday evening was usher board meeting. Wednesday evening was prayer meeting. Thursday evening was visit the sick. Friday evening was choir practice. I mean, and at all those gatherings, we sang.

I had real plans for my next decade and felt I’d worked hard enough to earn it. Will I really not live to see my children married? To watch the World Trade Center rise again? To read – if not indeed write – the obituaries of elderly villains like Henry Kissinger and Joseph Ratzinger?

There was the time I bought three cars in the span of three or four weeks. It was crazy; it wasn’t greedy. It was mine, my girl’s, my mom’s. I got Benzes for my ladies. But I felt crazy. You have to understand I come from a world where we’re very modest. But that’s not greedy. That’s nice, right?

If I were a woman, I would love to have lots of kids. But for men, I don’t believe in it.

I take a very practical view of raising children. I put a sign in each of their rooms: ‚Checkout Time is 18 years.‘

To be frank, it sometimes seems that the American idea of freedom has more to do with my freedom to do what I want than your freedom to do what you want. I think that, in Europe, we’re probably better at understanding how to balance those competing claims, though not a lot.

To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education.

It takes three to make a child.

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

I love to dance, but my children tell me I shouldn’t. Can’t see why.

When I was a youngster I lived with different families. I nearly always felt closer to the man of the house. Maybe because I always dreamed of having a father of my own.

My dad was like a stage mother he always pushed me to do what I wanted.

Pfft, I hate Christmas Day. It’s for children and families. Not for people like me.

I love good film, whether it’s an independent or studio film. The independent films, I think the good ones aren’t necessarily eccentric ones but they’re the more specific ones.

I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

I like being with my family. That’s my party.

I get impatient with people working on a film that have their head in their hands like it’s the most complicated thing in the world.

Give a little love to a child, and you get a great deal back.

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

I continue to care for President Obama and for his family. I think that in many ways they are very courageous people, and I honor that, because I know what it means to live as a black person in a racist America.

He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.

What troubles me most about my lovely country is that its children are seldom taught that American freedom will vanish, if, when they grow up, and in the exercise of their duties as citizens, they insist that our courts and policemen and prisons be guided by divine or natural law.

To rule children by force is the technique of Satan, not of the Savior.

I believe that God’s dream is that we be successful in our careers, and that we be able to send our kids to college. I don’t mean that everyone is going to be rich, and I preach a lot on blooming where you’re planted. But I don’t have the mindset that money is a bad thing.

Do I worry about being in the public eye and raising kids? Yeah. Any situation you’re in, you’re gonna worry about raising kids. But it’s champagne problems, too. There are people who can’t feed their kids.

Being the only man in the household with my mom definitely helped me grow up fast.

It’s pretty hard to be efficient without being obnoxious.

I want to make something that is breathtaking. Of course, you can’t make something that is always breathtaking, or you would never be able to breathe. You would collapse.

Creative people don’t behave very well generally. If you’re looking for examples of good relationships in show business, you’re gonna be depressed real fast. I don’t have time for anything else right now but work and my daughter. She’s my first priority.

As a lifestyle you always being the focal point is innately unhealthy.

I know I’m talented, but I wasn’t put here to sing. I was put here to be a wife and a mom and look after my family. I love what I do, but it’s not where it begins and ends.

Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive.

I always joke that my kids‘ favorite holiday is Father’s Day. They love the way I celebrate the occasion by writing each of them a thank-you letter and a generous check. It’s my way of letting them know how much I appreciate the great pleasure and privilege of being their dad.

I like to talk about my obsession with french fries because I don’t want people to think that ‚Let’s Move‘ is about complete, utter deprivation. It’s about moderation and real-life changes and ideas that really work for families.

I didn’t have any children of my own.

I like the anonymity that directors can have about their films.

The assumption is that your personal life has to be a mess to create, but how much chaos can you allow in before it takes over?

One time, this guy was bothering my mother, and me and my brothers had a stern talking with the guy and a little bit of physicality with him. So he disappeared. But I’m not a magician.

Whoever does not have a good father should procure one.

We should not look down on our first ancestors.

My mother would kill me if I posed nude! My mother raised me with certain standards.

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.

When I was a kid, I had a tendency to criticize. But when I did, my mum would whisk me off to the bathroom to stand in front of a mirror. Ten minutes, never less. To think about how criticism is a poor reflection on the one who criticizes.

Life is grim, and we don’t have to be grim all the time.

The kids never listen to you, especially the youngest ones.

To have in general but little feeling, seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any particular occasion.

I hope my own children never have to fight a war.

I’ve always said the one advantage an actor has of converting to a director is that he’s been in front of the camera. He doesn’t have to get in front of the camera again, subliminally or otherwise.

Some people carry their heart in their head and some carry their head in their heart. The trick is to keep them apart yet working together.

Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won’t make people enjoy life more, and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa – and it’s about getting a balance.

Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.

Sisters are brittle things. God was penurious with me, which makes me shrewd with Him. One is a dainty sum! One bird, one cage, one flight; one song in those far woods, as yet suspected by faith only!

It’s true; once you are a father, there’s no turning back. Your heart strings as well as your purse strings are never again the same.

I loved photography and everybody said it was a crazy thing to do because in those days nobody made it into the film business. I mean, unless you were related to somebody there was no way in.

Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.

I teach children to be winners.