Harper Lee Quotes

Although I do not have a family, I have eyes, ears and imagination, and know, as most people know, that the importance of one's children is paramount.

Be a father first. Don't put a priority of being a friend with your wife first, or a friend with your kids first.

I've experienced love and ambition and desire in my life, but never in the same way as in a family.

You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.

My children are 10 and three, and the longing and the need for them is incredibly powerful.

That undeniable love for your child... that's something I totally get. And the bumps in the road, too. Like, any parent that thinks they have a perfect relationship with their child is a liar, or they're just not present.

Emma wasn't bothered about the fact that I was a 'celebrity', held in high esteem by millions of cricket fans around the world. As far as she was concerned, I was just her dad, and she believed that role should take priority over anything else.

I have two grown up sons who, as I've repeatedly said are my first and only priority in life.

My son's my number-one priority.

I root for anyone who's got kids and if they want to make it work.

Working parents bring a certain amount of guilt to their relationship with their children.

My relationship with my kids is the one sad area of my life.

Being a parent you want to be strong for your kids and ninety percent of being a parent is not telling the truth.

I will be there for my kids.

That is my priority, that my son is healthy and happy. I will do whatever I can to ensure that, and my husband is the exact same way.

Family is first for me.

So much of my work is about children and/or parenting; it's something I'm drawn to without being able to completely articulate why.

When I had daughters, I realized that I wouldn't never do anything to a girl that I wouldn't want done to my own daughter.

The first human I ever said 'I love you' to was my oldest son.

I try to do everything for my son so that, when he grows up, he can say that he was proud of his father.

Sometimes, she said, mostly to herself, I feel I do not know my children... It was a fleeting statement, one I didn't think she'd hold on to; after all, she had birthed us alone, diapered and fed us, helped us with homework, kissed and hugged us, poured her love into us. That she might not actually know us seemed the humblest thing a mother could admit.

I think the biggest problem is parents are so concerned with being friends with their kids. You're not their friend. You're their parent.

It's a long haul bringing up our children to be good; you have to keep doing that — bring them up — and that means bringing things up with them: Asking, telling, sounding them out, sounding off yourself — finding, through experience, your own words, your own way of putting them together. You have to learn where you stand, and make sure your kids learn [where you stand], understand why, and soon, you hope, they'll be standing there beside you, with you.

A mother always thinks twice: for herself and for the child

During the sole argument we had when [Chelsea] was in high school, the subject of which I don't even remember, I looked at her and said, 'As long as you're in this house, being president is my second most important job'.