Patrick deWitt Quotes

Families just have so many secrets and dysfunctions.

I think our family is like a lot of families. We had no vocabulary for mental illness

I think I know what it's like to have a family that the outside world sees as peculiar or lacking.

I think most families have a few secrets or some strange aspect to their history. We're all fascinated by family dynamics, but I'd much rather sit in an audience and watch someone else's problems!

There's a lot of conflict and darkness inside everybody's family. We all pretend to outsiders that it's not so, but behind locked doors, there are usually high emotions running.

Everybody has a dysfunctional family.

Many TV shows these days have rural flavor, but in terms of content, they are all family politics.

Every family argues and goes through things.

My mother was crazy.

As a person, I think you're always kind of searching for something or going through a hardship, whether it's your parents splitting up or anything like that. I mean, my parents stuck together, for whatever reason, until I was about 23, and then they decided to call it quits.

My family, they are definitely not an ordinary family.

I, like many people, have had bumps in the road when it comes to family. Family dynamics are complicated and weigh heavily on me.

Most families are dysfunctional.

Well, you have children so you know: little children little troubles, big children, big troubles - it's a saying in Yiddish. Maybe the Chinese said it too.

And that is how Goodwin problems were always fixed. Fix them on the surface but don't go to the root, always ignoring the elephant in the room. I think that morning was when I realized I'd grown up with an elephant in every room of my life. It was practically our family pet.

We really don't rest if we think our kids are drifting, or if we think they don't have the right work ethic. It drives us crazy. Because we ultimately want them to succeed and, until they do, we feel in some way that something is not complete.

Anyone must remember that dad left when I was 3 years old. Mom and I lived out of the limelight. We lived a totally different life.

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.

Remember that you own what happened to you. If your childhood was less than ideal, you may have been raised thinking that if you told the truth about what really went on in your family, a long bony white finger would emerge from a cloud and point to you, while a chilling voice thundered, "We *told* you not to tell." But that was then. Just put down on paper everything you can remember now about your parents and siblings and relatives and neighbors, and we will deal with libel later on.

As children everyone thinks their family is weird and they're upset by the weirdness of their own family.

There are secrets everywhere. I think everyone's parents have secrets. You just have to know where to look for them.

I think most people know the concept of difficult family situations. So I try to just ground a very big concept in something we can all relate to on some level.

I was approaching adolescence. For some reason, I guess my mother thought it would be less crazy out in the suburbs, which it wasn't. I just think adolescence is hard for anyone.

Children always know when their mothers are crazy - they just never admit it, not out loud, to anyone.

People understand when I talk about my son not listening, or issues at home or his real dad coming back into the picture, or even stories about family members not seeing eye to eye with what you're doing.