I had to make a choice at one point in my life, of missing films or missing my children. It was a very easy decision to make because I missed my children so very much.

I have not endorsed Trump and will not do so.

My family is very good about visiting me, and other friends as well.

My mother loved children – she would have given anything if I had been one.

Something’s very wrong with a nation that would rather spend money on war than take care of its children.

I won’t do something unless I can get at least two or three good laughs out of it. If I can’t, it’s not gonna make the team.

My family was a poor farming family, and we lived under absolute segregation.

All things considered, there’s nobody better for children than parents.

I have a brother and sister; my mother does not care for thought, and father, too busy with his briefs to notice what we do. He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they joggle the mind.

My elder brothers were all put apprentices to different trades. I was put to the grammar-school at eight years of age, my father intending to devote me, as the tithe of his sons, to the service of the Church.

I mean, families are weird.

I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live as if there isn’t and to die to find out that there is.

When I am playing baseball, I give it all that I have on the ball field. When the ball game is over, I certainly don’t take it home. My little girl who is sitting out there wouldn’t know the difference between a third strike and a foul ball. We don’t talk about baseball at home.

Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.

When in doubt tell the truth.

Where thou art, that is home.

My mami and papi love my music. They’re always listening to the radio waiting for one of my songs to come on. And when it does, they turn up the volume – and turn it back down when it’s over.

Train up a child in the way that he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

I cannot remember a moment in my life when I have not felt the love of my family. We were a family that would have killed for each other – and we still are.

In search of my mother’s garden, I found my own.

Let’s just be smart this time. I’m looking for smart.

My father moved to Hawaii from Brooklyn and my mother came there as a child from the Philippines. They met at a show where my dad was playing percussion. My mom was a hula dancer.

There’s nothing better than having a baby. I’ve always loved children. I used to work summers at the YMCA and be in charge of, like, 30 preschool kids. I knew that when I had a child, I’d be overwhelmed, and it’s true… I can’t tell you how much my attitude has changed since we’ve got Frances. Holding my baby is the best drug in the world.

If you want to be a good strategist, you can never just go off a principle you read in a book. You need to adapt what you do to the situation; no rule of thumb is true all the time.

I was offered a job on Wall Street by my uncle. But I wanted to get out. Make-it-on-my-own kinda thing.

The ideal death, I think, is what was the ideal Victorian death, you know, with your grandchildren around you, a bit of sobbing. And you say goodbye to your loved ones, making certain that one of them has been left behind to look after the shop.

I base a lot of decisions on my gut, and going with an independent label was a good one.

The Sabbath provides a wonderful opportunity to strengthen family ties.

For me, often, there’s such a cloud of melancholia about knowing I’m going to have to leave my daughter on her own. I don’t know what age that is going to be, thank God. It just doubles me up in grief.

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.

I think I have had so much blessing – I’ve had my brother, who was brilliant – I think my family came closest to making a genius when they made my brother – Bailey was just all of that. He loved me.

Parentage is a very important profession, but no test of fitness for it is ever imposed in the interest of the children.

Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque caricatures of himself.

Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all.

International summits and organisations like WTO take decisions, which will bind us, and if we are not present in such summits, we may be hurt by the decisions taken.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

I used to live with my grandmother. I used to wonder why the other kids in school went home with their mothers and fathers. I wanted to be the guy that got married. I wanted to be the guy with the children and the white picket fence. I never had that.

I’d like to think that I’m a calm and sweet person. I tend to be very playful at home with my children, but in life… we have to fight our battles – our work battles, our political battles, our personal battles – and we’re focused.

When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.

It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.

As I got older, my pops tried to keep me involved with the culture by telling me the stories of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, how he came to America, and about our family back home, because all that side of my family – my aunties, grandparents – is in Africa.

Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny.

Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.

Action expresses priorities.

I had this child, and it destroyed my family.

Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage.

Going home helps the content.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

I do not love to be printed on every occasion, much less to be dunned and teased by foreigners about mathematical things or to be thought by our own people to be trifling away my time about them when I should be about the king’s business.

Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and of family disagreements.

We think it’s fun for our kids to have cameos and join us on set, but not to be actors. That’s not our goal for Brad and me at all. I think we would both prefer that they didn’t become actors.

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

The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

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

When you’re 40, you can’t ride the fence anymore. You gotta make definite decisions about your life.

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.

My mother did not like children.

My mother, my grandmother, my uncles would play Ethiopian artists like Aster Aweke and Mulatu Astatke all the time in the house.

Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities of escape, again, are as many as hiding places.

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.

A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.