Virginia Woolf Quotes

Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them - a mother's approval, a father's nod - are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.

While I have always had a good relationship with my father, much of the time it has been a very limited relationship until I was older. So you can't really give him credit or blame for how I turned out.

I want to be known as someone who grew up a little.

I mean my mother always wanted us to be individuals. She always instilled that into our brains which was incredibly painful for an adolescent to deal with.

. . . if we have children. When they are just born we do everything for them. We are omnipotent, they are completely dependent on us, but then when they grow up you must take back your influence on them, to give them freedom.

Children need parents who will let them grow up to be themselves, but parents often have personal agendas they try to impose on their children.

You grow up to become living proof of your parents' limitations. Their less-than masterpiece.

The child is father of the man: And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety.

I'd hope that the story A Dog's Purpose helps everyone reflect on how many different "lives" we all live - from children to teenager to adults to seniors - and how each phase of life presents new situations along the way to discovering our ultimate purpose.

I've had a lot of different lives. I was adopted, I grew up in Nebraska, and then I went to Northwestern... Then I had this really extraordinary, different life than my parents.

As I grow older, I have a growing curiosity about my other half. My dad did a wonderful job raising me, and I wouldn't change it for the world, but at the same time there is a growing curiosity about my other half.

I am trying to find myself. Sometimes that's not easy.

You may think me crude, and probably I am crude, but I am not so crude as I was, for I am clever enough to see that the girl of nineteen who thought herself a genius was only an unusual girl writing her heart out.

All of us have moments in our childhood where we come alive for the first time. And we go back to those moments and think, This is when I became myself.

Don't go through life, grow through life.

It took me a while to find myself.

I was an only child, and Mother was always right with me all my life. I used to get very angry at her when I was growing up-it's a natural thing.

Being the only man in the household with my mom definitely helped me grow up fast.

Growing up, I always wanted a dog, but my parents never wanted one.

Maybe if I ever come to write about my teens and adulthood - and I can't imagine I will - but if I do, then maybe I will want to say a bit more about the ways in which my parents' relationship with one another impacted on me in later years.

I have done everything I can to make sure my daughter knows her father because you form your own identity by rebelling against your parents - but first you have to know them.

The orphan in children's literature allows the child protagonist to move the story forward themselves. I think that, however happy a family, every intelligent child thinks: 'How did I come to be born to these parents?' - it is about finding your place in the world.

It is not the question, what am I going to be when I grow up; you should ask the question, who am I going to be when I grow up.

At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself.

When I stopped seeing my mother through the eyes of a child, I saw the woman who helped me give birth to myself.