John Lithgow Quotes

As a single parent, it can really be tough if the father's not in the picture much. Physically, emotionally and financially, you are trying to be there for your child and it can really get on top of you.

I tell ya, it's tough to save a buck. Right now I'm supporting two fighters. My wife and her mother.

I just remember all those days in the unemployment line, stressed out over when my next job was coming.

Nobody can ever make enough money for as many poor relatives as I've got. Somebody's got a sick kid, or somebody needs an operation, somebody ain't got this, somebody ain't got that. Or to give the kids all a car when they graduate.

Money was tight and Mum used to do two jobs to support us.

I was trying to support a family with writing. I didn't have a private income. I had no other profession.

It's expensive to raise a child with special needs, which people don't even think about. Emotionally it can be a struggle, but financially it's really rough.

Only now that I'm a mum can I fully understand the terrible pressure parents feel buying presents for their kids. My mum had four children plus all of the extended family and she not only had to feed us all but she bought presents for everyone, too.

There was a time when I had no work, and I had to sit at home for 4 years.

Let's face it - being a nurse, a single mom of eight kids, I would not be able to provide for them in any way shape or form.

Being out of work is very depressing. But luckily I haven't been there for a long time.

Pressure is a man that is wondering how he's going to feed his five kids today.

We were in the position after our sextuplets were born that we could not pay our bills. We did the show to provide a better life for them.

We're in an era where they've sanitized home life in movies to such a degree that there is a certain home life that might be true if you have two perfect parents, and a nanny, and a couple babysitters, and support, and lots of money, and there's no strain at home, or whatever. But for most people, there's strain, you know? There's a lot of pressure, things can't be perfect, parents can't be perfect all the time. There's a divorce, there's money issues, whatever. People work, so you don't always have these vast reserves of patience every time your kid goes crazy.

The center of my life is my kids, I woke up at 3 in the morning with four kids with jet lag and two babies. I put myself together for a few hours and go out. And then I go home. This is my job.

I walked the streets of New York for two years begging for a job, and I couldn't get one.

I'm just like any other regular mum; cooking, cleaning, wiping butts, picking up after kids, being a wife and helping the kids with their homework. Mind you, I'm terrible at maths. I can't even do my six-year-old's maths homework with her.

As a mother, I - like everyone else - have to fill my gas tank in my car. I have to feed my family. I have to be able to make sure that I can keep a roof over their heads and, with things escalating the way they are, it's very difficult. People are losing their homes.

When I was forty, I was getting divorced, living in a low-class, dirty hotel in New York. My mother was dying of cancer. I owed $20,000. That was about the lowest. I came back to show business, and I couldn't get a job. I was turned down by every small-time agent in New York.

I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.

After 14 months of military service, I had a wife, a child, half an apartment, no car, and no job.

Wrestling with work-life balance is a luxury when working to support a family is a necessity rather than a choice. I think that focus is only partially a result of these tough economic times. I think it also reflects a bit of "having it all fatigue": women are worn out from feeling the pressure to excel at work, and be the perfect mom at home.

Another son came along 18 months later, although we waited four years to have the third, because Mitt was still in school and we had no income except the stock we were chipping away at. We were living on the edge, not entertaining. No, I did not work. Mitt thought it was important for me to stay home with the children, and I was delighted.

Today Mitt Romney is 68 years old. It's kind of sad, a 68-year-old guy with no job, no future - wait a minute, that's me.