Gail Parent Quotes

I was getting old, man. I was staring 27 in the face.

When you're a fledgling youth-type adult, it appears that all people in their 40s look old enough to be in a painting hanging on the wall of a stately home in England. It's not until you limp into your 70s that people in their 40s look too young to vote, and college cheerleaders closely resemble Yorkshire terriers.

I hate getting old, but I'm sticking with it!

Adulthood is the ever-shrinking period between childhood and old age. It is the apparent aim of modern industrial societies to reduce this period to a minimum.

Now there is this whole terror about getting old. Today, that fascination with youth is overrated. What's so special about being young? I just say that because I'm old.

I think aging and maturing is really interesting, and it's a shame that Americans are so panicky and paranoid about it.

I'm not bothered by the idea of getting old, or I guess you could say by having arrived at old. I was 10 when my mom turned 55. For 1955, she was a very old mom.

Each child should try to see in his parents the children they previously were. Each parent should try to see in his child the adult he seems to be becoming.

The young need old men. They need men who are not ashamed of age, not pathetic imitations of themselves. ... Parents are the bones on which children sharpen their teeth.

What's the worst thing about getting old? Getting old.

When you are 20, 40 looks really old. When I was nearing 30, that seemed like a major milestone.

My kids think I'm old and over the hill.

I am now at an age when they wanted me to play her mother.

The exhaustion of old age is something people who are younger don't fully appreciate.

The fear of old age is something that one feels when they're younger. Once you get to being old, you're already there, so you don't even think about it anymore.

To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am.

I say to my mother all the time, 'You're the child.' And she says, 'Yeah, you're the mother.' I've been that way with her since I was 11.

I do not think that having children - I have three teenagers - keeps you young. The reverse. It thrusts you into a full-frontal confrontation with your own all-too-obvious maturity.

I think that if you become a parent, you stop being a child, and your position in relation to your parents changes.

It is not all bad, this getting old, ripening. After the fruit has got its growth it should juice up and mellow. God forbid I should live long enough to ferment and rot and fall to the ground in a squash.

Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle, Old Age a regret.

In terms of the frustration of my character, I suppose any teenager has probably gone through that, in terms of telling their parents, I want to do one thing, and their parent says no. I think parents sometimes forget that they were children.

The minute you're born, you're getting older.

It's funny, because when you're younger you're in a rush to be 18 or 21 or whatever. But then you hit 30. And now, the days go by like hours. You think, 40, man, this could be the halfway point. It could be the three-quarters point, you know? Who knows?

Most of us become parents long before we have stopped being children.