My son’s full real name is Duncan Zowie Haywood. As a toddler, he was called by his second name Zowie. But it was such an identifiable name during the Seventies that if I called him loudly in public places, everyone would turn to stare, so I started calling him Joey to take the pressure off.

Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.

As a mom, I know it is my responsibility, and no one else’s, to raise my kids. But we have to ask ourselves, what does it mean when so many parents are finding their best efforts undermined by an avalanche of advertisements aimed at our kids.

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.

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

My experiences in life are getting bigger and better. The more stuff I do, the more stuff I talk about – having kids, traveling, going through relationship problems, dealing with things in my own family. All that stuff builds character.

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

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

As a father, safety is always a top of mind issue for me.

I still learn, but I think it’s the best thing in life to have a kid.

The myths underlying our culture and underlying our common sense have not taught us to feel identical with the universe, but only parts of it, only in it, only confronting it – aliens.

When we talk about mortality, we are talking about our children.

The American foreign policy trauma of the sixties and seventies was caused by applying valid principles to unsuitable conditions.

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.

‚They‘ is… stay away from them, please. There is so many different definitions of ‚they.‘ You might have a personal ‚they.‘ They against you; they want you broken and miserable. They don’t like winners; they don’t like people who’s blessed. So everybody’s got a different ‚they.‘

Sometimes I wonder if I’m as famous for my wheelchair and disabilities as I am for my discoveries.

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.

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.

My purpose is to help people look at themselves and begin to shift their concepts. Remember, we are not our country, our race, or religion. We are eternal spirits. Seeing ourselves as spiritual beings without label is a way to transform the world and reach a sacred place for all of humanity.

First, I’m trying to prove to myself that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll convince myself that I’m an actress.

Our need for certainty in an endeavor as uncertain as raising children makes explicit ‚how-to-parent‘ strategies both seductive and dangerous.

I can’t disguise myself with a wig and dark glasses – the wheelchair gives me away.

I feel like everything we do comes down to how it looks. Even no branding is branding. For example, you had no face or image to put to my music at first. That was branding.

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 had my first baby at twenty-one.

I think being an atheist is something you are, not something you do.

My mother was determined to make us independent. When I was four years old, she stopped the car a few miles from our house and made me find my own way home across the fields. I got hopelessly lost.

I have always thought of myself as a Czechoslovak Catholic.

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that’s always existed.

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.

I really do feel part of America to my very bones; at the same time, I know that I come from somewhere else.

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.

If you are a parent, you have probably already realized that your children are always watching what you do. And just as children watch their parents and emulate their behavior, so do employees who are watching their bosses.

When your mother asks, ‚Do you want a piece of advice?‘ it is a mere formality. It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no. You’re going to get it anyway.

No, I’m not a French designer either. I’m from nowhere. I’m a European, old European is all I am.

A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.

I want kids. I want a soccer team, and I want a husband.

Everything I do, I hope, is that I represent something, and I represent the right things to my children and give them the right sense of what they’re capable of and the world as it should be seen.

I have a hard time figuring out what kind of box to put me in, too, because I don’t know exactly what’s going on around me or why. But I need to stay outside of boxes because then I can look at what’s inside of them without being part of them.

One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.

For people who may think they know, or have snippets of who I am, you can attack that person. That’s part of being a public figure.

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.

It wasn’t so long ago that I was a working mom myself. And I know that sometimes, much as we all hate to admit it, it’s just easier to park the kids in front of the TV for a few hours, so we can pay the bills or do the laundry or just have some peace and quiet for a change.

An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experience.

You can never really live anyone else’s life, not even your child’s. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you’ve become yourself.

The person we believe ourselves to be will always act in a manner consistent with our self-image.

It was weird to be married; you kind of lose your identity. You’re suddenly somebody’s wife. And you’re like, ‚Oh, I’m half of a couple now. I’ve lost me.‘

What is normal? Normal was yesterday. If you lose a leg, one day you’re hopping around on one leg, so you know the difference.

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

I’m not great at bedtime stories. Bedtime stories are supposed to put the kid to sleep. My kid gets riled up and then my wife has to come in and go, ‚All right! Get out of the room.‘

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

Me don’t dip on nobody’s side. Me don’t dip on the black man’s side, not the white man’s side. Me dip on God’s side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.

The day when I am no more than a writer I shall cease to be a writer.

A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled.

Funk, I don’t think I have anything to do with funk. I’ve never considered myself funky.

What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.

I wear the national dress because it is the most natural and the most becoming for an Indian.

For Africa to me… is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

I never wanted to be Marilyn – it just happened. Marilyn’s like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane.