Chris Matthews Quotes

So I grew up in a very book-friendly environment and my education as a writer was reading. I think that's the best education. Reading, and taking from the people I admired.

Any kid will run any errand for you, if you ask at bedtime.

I don't have the feeling that as a very young person I read books that absolutely made their mark on my mind.

A lot of what the 'Culture' is about is a reaction to all the science fiction I was reading in my very early teens.

My kids tell me to Instagram, so I do that. I have a few thousand followers.

Kids look up to me, and it's really incredible to be in that position.

I never read detective novels. I started out in graduate school writing a more serious book. Right around that time I read 'The Day of the Jackal' and 'The Exorcist'. I hadn't read a lot of commercial fiction, and I liked them.

We are such a product of our upbringing and environment.

I was a nut for Dostoevsky. You can tell a lot from what people read between those ages. My brother was a Steinbeck freak and now he lives in a little village in New Hampshire and he's a baker.

This is absolutely terrible. I’m quite unprepared for it. David [his older brother] has been trained for this all his life. I’ve never even seen a state paper.

I read Nabakov for style, Mary Karr for heart and resonance of where I come from. She's from the same part of the world that I'm from. Cormac McCarthy and Hemingway, to read the masters.

I read a lot, but in comparison to my family, it's nothing. I keep telling them, 'I'm the illiterate of the family.' My grandfather used to read five books at a time.

Being the guy that some kids look up to is pretty cool.

Everything I am I owe to Sterling Sharpe. He made me a better football player, a better father, and a better man. He was, and always will be, my hero.

I'm a sucker for hero worship.

And, it seems like a whole new generation of kids have discovered his genius and are bringing him to life again. I hope that wherever Michael is right now he is smiling about this. Yes, Michael Jackson was a human being but he was a king. Long live the king.

Parents, just keep in mind that kids will always round off to the nearest obscenity.

I used to stand in front of the mirror in my bedroom. I shared a bedroom - like a lot of people in my era, in my neighborhood - with my two brothers and an uncle. And I'd stand there in front of the mirror over the dresser and I would practice: meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views of Cicero, Bacon and Baba.

The folks I read as a kid really set me up. I owe a huge debt to Ray Bradbury and Madeleine L'Engle.

It often is a terrible insult to some families if one of the kids turns out to be an artist and that's one way to really shake up the family if you haven't got nerve enough to turn into a homosexual.

I always thought my father [influenced me most] because he was so well read, I tried to model myself on him, but really as I go through life I realise it was my mother who gave me the most valuable instructions. I didn't understand or accept it at the time. She taught me to read and to pray - two things that have really stayed with me.

I guess I always like being asked questions about influence or inspiration, like, "What are you reading? Who are your heroes? Is there any one person you want to shout out to now?" I really love paying it forward with love and attention, because that's what I like to read.

Invariably it turns out to be who you've been reading in the last couple of weeks, and two hours or two days [on favourite authors

I related so much to the responsibility of being a parent, the responsibility of "did you screw your kid up," the responsibility of letting your own parents down.

Maybe because I began as a writer, I have a good ear for dialogue, and maybe being an English major - and that I also read a lot as a kid - if I hear somebody say something that I think's funny, or I find a situation or story, I'll try to work that into the movie.