Loudon Wainwright III Quotes

I come from this macho Italian neighborhood. When I was thirteen, during those real vulnerable, impressionable years, and a boy starts becoming a man, to make that transition, and you start making decisions, and you start developing virtue and principles - I never made the transition.

Was I a successful father? Maybe not. Was I a successful husband? Probably not. Was I a successful actor? Probably not.

I had a difficult time hearing my own inner voice about what I wanted to be in this life, because there were all these perfect examples of what a man actually does. The notion is that he goes to college, gets married and provides. That's what a man does.

I have filled 3 Mead notebooks trying to figure out whether it was Them or Just Me.

There are some things about myself I can’t explain to anyone. There are some things I don’t understand at all. I can’t tell what I think about things or what I’m after. I don’t know what my strengths are or what I’m supposed to do about them. But if I start thinking about these things in too much detail the whole thing gets scary. And if I get scared I can only think about myself. I become really self-centered, and without meaning to, I hurt people. So I’m not such a wonderful human being.

A man doesn't cry. In my life, I've never cried. I cannot do it. I am a man. How will I cry?

I'm always around my mother and sisters. I always wanted to be a father, a husband.

I think that many people are ashamed when they feel afraid. There's this thing in our society that you're not allowed to feel scared. You have to be a man and put on a brave face, but we all have fears.

I internalize everything, keep everything inside. I'm not used to spilling my guts, and when you have to do that on film to make a point, it's hard. It's rough. I don't think it's as easy as people think.

I was an angst-y journal writing kid.

I can't be a man. But I can embrace the head of a man, the intelligence of a man, the spirit of a man.

I remember, when I was a little kid, I was good at sports, and I could jump off the high board. And then puberty hit, and suddenly I was looking to boys for direction. I remember that as a great loss.

When a Spanish man cries it's not a sign of weakness.

If you think my music is sentimental and self-absorbed, I agree with you.

I can't claim I'm truly a man's man, I'm just as much of a dork and a crybaby sometimes as anybody else.

If I were as much of a man as my woman, I'd be my wife.

Sometimes, I feel like I spent the first part of my life wishing to be a teen-age boy, and the second part condemned to being one.

For all of higher civilization's recorded history, becoming a man was defined overwhelmingly as taking responsibility for a family.

I think it was when I ran into Kerouac and Burroughs - when I was 17 - that I realized I was talking through an empty skull... I wasn't thinking my own thoughts or saying my own thoughts.

If I had my life to live over, I would want to be a man.

So much of Hollywood is this kind of overly machismo, nonsensical view of masculinity, which I just don't find honest. I think it's this idea of - you know, we're told, well, 'Be a man, be a man.' But what does that mean, exactly? Does that mean you can't carry yourself with any fear? That you can't acknowledge that you're scared?

After wrestling with myself for six months, I began medical treatment. During that time I started a band with some friends of mine called Jack's Car, but that didn't last.

There are times I can't even figure myself out.

If only I could change my destiny and be a man, …

The crazy thing is a lot of people - a lot of men, if I'm just speaking for myself - don't really start thinking about the effect of hyper-masculinity and false definitions of what it means to be a man until you get married or until you have kids. Because then, all of sudden, you have something to protect.