Chris Rock Quotes

I grew up in a normal family. I have sweet parents, who are still married... But my life is so different from how I thought it would be.

I'm a typical middle child. I'm the mediator. The one that makes everything OK, puts their own needs aside to make sure everybody's happy. It's hard to change your nature, even with years and years of therapy.

I was the middle of five children, and we were five very opinionated siblings. That probably pushed me to learn to speak up for myself.

There were five children in my family, and arguing was how we used to entertain ourselves.

I never remember my parents having an argument.

My father didn't do a lot of direct education. My mother was the direct educator. She would put on these movies on American Movie Classics when we got cable, after my parents got divorced, which took like four or five years.

I think I am a better son than a husband.

One thing that I've noticed about big families is that they usually break down into two camps: the talkers and the watchers.

I have always believed that the way my parents disciplined me has a great deal to do with the success I have enjoyed as a man.

Better a loving single-parent family than a 'conventional' family where the parents hate each other and the father is a demagogue.

Children need parents who will let them grow up to be themselves, but parents often have personal agendas they try to impose on their children.

There are two kinds of houses in the neighborhood where I grew up-the ones where the parents stayed married, and the ones where they didn’t.

In the end, the type of parent you are is going to be something that you carry with you. ... Having multiple kids, it's been a gift in a way. It's keeping the priorities straighter.

Between the two [parents], it was a really unique upbringing, I think, especially for where I was from.

Parents who indulge themselves 'in moderation' may have children who indulge themselves to excess.

Ever wonder why people are so determined to reach for white picket fences, supposed normalcy, a nuclear family? Well, try growing up without one.

Our natural thing to do when we break away from our parents and our family is to decide in how many ways they were wrong and bad, and the older you get you start to realize, "By 'bad' I mean 'different'" and then you get a little bit older and you think, "And by 'different' I mean 'pretty awesome but just not like me.'"

The most socially subversive institution of our time is the one-parent family.

I don't ever remember being able to debate with my parents. Even though I thought of myself as a very bright kid, I couldn't be vocal in that way.

I was incredibly stubborn. I mean, I believe that my father was frequently in the right, but I would never admit it, and so we did have a few set-tos on various topics; but on the whole as I got older and my father got more mature we got along reasonably well.

The children of childish parents age quickly.

He saw the cause of his unhappiness in the family--the family as a social institution, which does not permit the child to become an independent individual at the proper time.

I think every person's parents teach them a lot and also mess them up royally.

You grow up to become living proof of your parents' limitations. Their less-than masterpiece.

Everyones childhood plays itself out. No wonder no one knows the other or can completely understand.