I’ve never been a hands-on dad. I’m not ashamed to admit it, but you can’t run a restaurant and be home for tea at 4:30 and bath and change nappies.

My parents are my backbone. Still are. They’re the only group that will support you if you score zero or you score 40.

In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it. They must not do too much of it. And they must have a sense of success in it.

When I’m getting to know someone, I look for someone who has passions that I respect, like his career. Someone who loves what he does is really attractive.

I’ve been my mom’s kitchen helper since I was a little kid.

The glory of being a carrier pilot has certainly worn off.

The side of fairytales I don’t like is that they always have happy endings, that there’s just good and evil, and things are perfect. But life is a little more complicated, and that’s what I try to teach my kids.

We all know we have a finite period of time. I just feel if I’m going to be alive, I want to be challenged – to be as immortal as possible. The path to that isn’t an easy way, but it’s a rewarding way.

Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.

My father probably thought the capital of the world was wherever he was at the time. It couldn’t possibly be anyplace else. Where he and his wife were in their own home, that, for them, was the capital of the world.

Madonna, I think, is the greatest visual musical artist that we’ve ever had. If you look at her photo log, the photographers that she was able to work with throughout her career framed her in the proper way. It was the proper context. It was that visual that made sure that everything was gonna cut through in a certain way.

A lot of preachers‘ kids are some of the most rebellious kids in the world. I never was like that.

As I get older, I tend to put more into family than I used to.

My first job in all honesty is going to continue to be mom-in-chief. Making sure that in this transition, which will be even more of a transition for the girls… that they are settled and that they know they will continue to be the center of our universe.

Children are our most valuable natural resource.

If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people’s choices. If I feel good about my body, I don’t go around making fun of other people’s weight or appearance. We’re hard on each other because we’re using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived deficiency.

I love being busy.

My mother was a full-time mother. She didn’t have much of her own career, her own life, her own experiences… everything was for her children. I will never be as good a mother as she was. She was just grace incarnate. She was the most generous, loving – she’s better than me.

Tell the children the truth.

I’ve enjoyed all the parts of my career.

If something inconveniences my children too much or takes me away from them, I won’t do it.

Training and resting takes up most of my time.

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.

None of my kids want to be actors. They are actually very interested in being musicians. I think they like the process of film from the outside. Mad is interested in editing. Pax loves music and deejaying.

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.

I was raised by strong women, and that DNA is in my daughter and wife.

As a country, we can’t teach kids how to read and write when we got 18 years to do it. And that’s – that’s a disgrace.

Would I swap what I have achieved as a cook if I could have been as successful as a footballer? Definitely.

John D. Rockefeller apparently became more of a tightwad the richer he got. I don’t know if it is true, but one story I read was about one of his sons having to wear his older sister’s clothes in order to save money.

I’ve accomplished enough with the music that I haven’t had to go out there and do other things to over-saturate.

OK, I have a nickname. My family calls me ‚Trey‘ because I’m William the third. My dad has the same name, which is always confusing because my dad is well known, and I’m also known.

More than anything else, I want the folks back at home to think right of me.

Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.

Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.

I’ve got incredible support from my wife and family and people around me. I’ve got great people around me who handle anything on the outside, business-wise, who help free me up to create in my job.

My whole family have all been through a difficult time. My focus is my children, our children.

Managers today have to do more with less, and get better results from limited resources, more than ever before.

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.

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.

Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan.

Jobs are a centuries-old concept created during the Industrial Revolution. Despite the reality that we’re now deep in the Information Age, many people are studying for, or working at, or clinging to the Industrial Age idea of a safe, secure job.

We had problems like all families but we had a lot of love. I was extremely loved. We always felt we had each other.

When one has not had a good father, one must create one.

Someone once asked me, ‚How long does it take to do your hair.‘ I said, ‚I don’t know, I’m never there.‘

Doing music to pay bills is an uncomfortable situation. I never wanted to be in that situation.

Any man who has had the job I’ve had and didn’t have a sense of humor wouldn’t still be here.

People intoxicate themselves with work so they won’t see how they really are.

The career of a sage is of two kinds: He is either honored by all in the world, Like a flower waving its head, Or else he disappears into the silent forest.

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.

Probably because I’m from a middle class family, I have that nature in me that I don’t get too excited with big things.

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!

There are too many people that depend on me. I’m too obligated. I’m in too far to get out.

Just got back from a pleasure trip: I took my mother-in-law to the airport.

Growing up, my grandmother did not want worldly music in the house. Then when I went out to California, I started listening to Spanish music, mostly Mexican music. But were I in Egypt, I would listen to the music of the people, or if I was in Italy, I’d listen to Italian music.

I love my job, but it’s more than that: I need it.

My mother was a powerful influence. She made me toe the line. If I didn’t have a perfect report card, she showed her disappointment.

Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.

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.

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

It is totally different making films in the East than in the West. In the East, I make my own Jackie Chan films, and it’s like my family. Sometimes I pick up the camera because I choreograph all the fighting scenes, even when I’m not fighting. I don’t have my own chair. I just sit on the set with everybody.

The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.