R. Kelly Quotes

I know that my dad not being in my life made a huge impact on me.

My father left when I was three, and I have no memory of him. The most significant male figures in my life were my grandfather, in whose house I lived during the first 10 years of my childhood, and later my stepfather.

Of course there's some things that I would have liked to have... none of my friends growing up had their father in the house. None of 'em. We had uncles and stuff like that, but nobody had a father in the house, none of my friends.

I didn't have a father figure in the house.

I grew up without a father figure.

You think of what might have been different if dad had been around, or how I might have turned out as a person. You just don't know. I might not even be playing cricket.

I never had a father figure so I never missed it.

A lot of people don't even know that about me, I grew up without a father.

If you don't have a father, you don't miss it, because you don't know what it is. It was really only when I married Wyatt Cooper that I understood what it was like to have a father, because he was just an extraordinary father.

People say you don't need a father to be successful. I take offense to that.

My childhood was defined by my father's absence. His presence looms so large. Up until the age of 18, he was a superstar for me.

Think about one of the most powerful influences on a young child's life - the absence of a father figure. Look back on recent presidents, and you'll find an absent, or weak, or failed father in the lives of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

I didn't have a dad coming up. I didn't have someone to be scared of.

I don't know what it's like to have a typical father figure. He's not the dad who's going to take me to the beach and go swimming, but he's such a motivational person.

Everybody's got a father. Even if he's not the nicest guy in the world.

My mum left my dad when I was six months old, so I don't know him at all. I had no male figures in my life, really. I had my godfather, but he's more like a grandfather, so I was quite sheltered. I've never tried to find my father.

In the modern world, it may be that a living father can only be half a father to a boy - the dead father is the other vital half: the half that grows the boy up once and for all.

My father was out of my life when I was pretty young - when I was 7 years old, he was gone. I didn't see him for the rest of my childhood.

I never suffered from the absence of a father. On the contrary, as a child I was more inclined to see men as a disturbing factor. It made things difficult for me when I started working as a director.

Almost 24 million children - one in three - are likely growing up without their father involved in their lives.

Unfortunately, I never knew my father and when I did, it was very briefly.

I want to be able to be a father to my kids, where I've never seen my father, but my kids can see me whenever they want, so that was broken.

I didn't have a dad around to pick me up when I fell, throw the ball to me outside. I always wonder how it would be if I did have a dad there.

The interesting thing about an absent father is, for a child, you don't know he's absent. You just think he's... tardy.

I know there are a lot of kids who aren't lucky enough to have a father figure in their lives. That's a really tough obstacle to overcome.