Marilynne Robinson Quotes

Few sons are equal to their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them.

To me, families are puzzles that take a lifetime to work out - or not, as often is the case - and I like to explore how people within them try to connect, be it through love, duty, or circumstance.

I would want my legacy to be that I was a great son, father and friend.

'Brahmotsavam' is a love story set in a family backdrop... It's all about relationships people have on different levels.

A theme throughout my life has been the intergenerational relationships human beings have.

I personally don't think that blood ties should be something that signifies so much more than anything else. I understand perfectly when somebody leaves their family for good.

The family unit is very interesting because these are people that you're supposed to be the closest to in your life, and yet that's where you find the greatest distances between people as well - especially between parents and kids.

Few sons are like their fathers - many are worse, few better.

Fathers and sons are much more considerate of one another than mothers and daughters.

The greater the kindred is, the lesse the kindnesse must bee.

In England every man you meet is some man's son; in America, he may be some man's father.

My father and I were never intimate in the sense of my coming to him with confidences or seeking advice. Our relationship was rather that of host and guest. Perhaps host and guest is really the happiest relation for father and son.

My own son feels I'm uncool but my grandson loves me. Being cool or uncool is a generational thing. But as a personal thing, I really love everybody in sight.

I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son.

The reservedness and distance that fathers keep, often deprive their sons of that refuge which would be of more advantage to them than an hundred rebukes or chidings.

Suddenly, all at once, she knows, knows that he doesn't understand her, that he never will, that he lacks the power to understand such perverseness. And that he can never move fast enough to catch her.

It seems to be typical of life in America ... that the second generation has no time to talk to the first.

A son is a promise that time makes to a man,the guarantee every father receives that whatever he holds dear will someday be considered foolish, and that person he loves best in the world will misunderstand him.

The people whom the sons and daughters find it hardest to understand are the fathers and mothers, but young people can get on very well with the grandfathers and grandmothers.

You can always count on your family to love you. And to betray you. And then to feel guilty about it.

I was interested in the idea of succession - showing a father and a son both in their own time and drawing a contrast

What people can't possibly imagine is what it's like to have two presidents who have a relationship as father and son.

They are our future, and we must have a dialogue. This dialogue between the past and the future is important. Because of this I underline so much the relationship between the youth and grandparents. They must speak with.

No mother is ever, completely, a child's idea of what a mother should be, and I suppose it works the other way around as well. But despite everything, we didn't do too badly by one another, we did as well as most.

I remember my mum explaining to me what adoption meant when I was still at primary school. 'Son,' she said to me, 'you didn't grow under my heart, you grew in it'.