I don’t take pictures when I’m with my kids, for the sake of my kids. It’s important when you’re as busy as I am that you give your kids your time when you’re with them, and nothing compromises that. I’ve been lucky enough to have fans that understand that.

I want to thank my Eritrean fans for feeling connected to me and for supporting me. I feel extremely grateful.

Everything I’ve been thinking, every vision, even down to every shot I throw, it just ends up here in reality. Whether it was in a fight and how to react or whether it was in a stadium with screaming fans or whether I was in a fancy car or the best clothes ever, I always put myself somewhere.

The kids are a big part of my schedule.

Sometimes, it’s just easier to say yes to that extra snack or dessert, because frankly, it is exhausting to keep saying no. It’s exhausting to plead with our kids to eat just one more bite of vegetables.

Isn’t it funny how babies laugh a lot? I read a toddler, a young child laughs 300 times a day. The average adult laughs, like, four times a day. God put it in them. He put the laugh in us, but I think sometimes we let life get us down, you know, have bad breaks, and we lose our breaks.

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.

I didn’t start sweating until I had children. That was one of the first things I realized when my daughter Violet was born – I started getting wicked BO. You know there’s a difference between basketball BO and stress BO? This was definitely stress BO. Like, new dad BO.

Americans want students to get the best education possible. We want schools to prepare children to become good citizens and members of a prosperous American economy.

I was a super-duper Tupac fan, and I realized later, when I became a huge Nas fan and a huge Eminem fan, I was drawn to the storytellers. They all told stories in different ways, but they were all like the best storytellers.

Together, we can help make sure that every family that walks into a restaurant can make an easy, healthy choice.

If you’re the parent, be a parent. You know what I mean? I’m a parent. I have daughters.

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.

If you were the President of the United States or the Queen of England – you couldn’t have a person who would be more protective than my mother was for me. Which meant really that I could dare to do all sorts of things.

You have to give others the opportunity to love who you love. If they don’t accept it, it’s their loss.

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

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

Our lifestyle was not in any way a negative. That was not the problem. That is and will remain one of the wonderful opportunities we are able to give our children.

Even if we give parents all the information they need and we improve school meals and build brand new supermarkets on every corner, none of that matters if when families step into a restaurant, they can’t make a healthy choice.

I certainly know that I would not be able to survive if it were not for the fact that I am being upheld by the prayers of so many people.

The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.

I think about my own sons and my own daughters, and I’m sure that many parents are concerned about what their children are exposed to.

If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.

Every great person is always being helped by everybody; for their gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.

I look at how my kids view exercise. They have a complete understanding that nutrition and exercise go hand in hand. I didn’t think like that when I was a kid. But they have a real consciousness about it that I’d like to think comes from the years of attention we’ve put into this.

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.

In general my children refuse to eat anything that hasn’t danced in television.

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

But now, being a parent, I go home and see my son and I forget about any mistake I ever made or the reason I’m upset. I get home and my son is smiling or he comes running to me. It has just made me grow as an individual and grow as a man.

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.

My husband’s a pediatrician, so he and I talk about parenting all the time. You can’t raise children who have more shame resilience than you do.

I don’t have maids or servants, and my husband and I love waking up early and going to the 24-hour supermarket when there is nobody else there.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it’s at the end of your arm, as you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.

I’m blessed to have such a tight-knit family that we can talk about anything. Whether we talk frequently or not, since we’re on separate ends of the country, there are a lot of moving parts, and we always stay tight and find that center ground that keeps us together.

When a child is locked in the bathroom with water running and he says he’s doing nothing but the dog is barking, call 911.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

Family and friendships are two of the greatest facilitators of happiness.

The reason that I’m here at all is because of my relationship with my family and their encouragement of me to be a musician and to work hard. As long as I stay there in that space, I can do anything. That’s my truth.

A woman can’t be alone. She needs a man. A man and a woman support and strengthen each other. She just can’t do it by herself.

Of all nature’s gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children?

It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.

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

I have spent the greater part of my life in a hotel room with seven or eight kids, looking after everyone, sorting out fights, wiping noses, handing out towels, not having a clean towel left for me.

I always wanted to be a father and thought it would be great, but it just took the right woman and the right time to make it all happen.

When I think of the love I feel for each member of our family, I sense, to a slight degree, the love that our Heavenly Father bears for His children.

Being a child at home alone in the summer is a high-risk occupation. If you call your mother at work thirteen times an hour, she can hurt you.

I did have two dads; one was a socialist, and one was a capitalist. I really decided I would rather be a capitalist.

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

I have a terrifying long list of fears. Literally everything – diseases, spiders… and people getting tired of me.

My mom was a terrible parent of young children. And thank God – I thank God every time I think of it – I was sent to my paternal grandmother. Ah, but my mother was a great parent of a young adult.

I think every entertainer’s had nights when things go wrong. I mean you can’t remember everything all the time, and especially if you’re having hard times personally, things going on that you – you know, and then people make it worse. And that makes you feel worse.

I loved writing for kids, I loved talking to children about what I’d written, I don’t want to leave that behind.

A people do not throw their geniuses away. And if they are thrown away, it is our duty as artists and as witnesses for the future to collect them again for the sake of our children and, if necessary, bone by bone.

What I like to do is get the family in the pick-up truck… and then we just go for a drive. That’s it!

Always kiss your children goodnight, even if they’re already asleep.

Adults are obsolete children.

My own eight children all march to the beat of their inner music, and in some cases, it is definitely far away from what I hear. I’ve had to honor their instincts and their choices, and merely guided them out of harm’s way until they could be their own guides.

We must do everything in our power to cease the behaviour that makes children everywhere feel afraid.

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.

I think the family movie is very important to everybody right now.