Berry Gordy Quotes

I know that I have raised my sons to be big, strong, independent men who love God, themselves and care for others. I have to learn to let them have space and learn without me.

wisdom is like a bottomless pond. You throw stones in and they sink into darkness and dissolve. Her eyes looking back do not reflect anything. I think this to myself even though I love my daughter. She and I have shared the same body. There is a part of her mind that is a part of mine. But when she was born she sprang from me like a slippery fish, and has been swimming away ever since. All her life, I have watched her as though from another shore.

I love my daughter. She and I have shared my body. There is a part of her mind that is a part of mine. But when she was born, she sprang from me like a slippery fish, and has been swimming away ever since.

There comes a moment as a parent when you realize you will no longer be the center of your child's universe.

The truth is, I'd like to be closer to my kids. I'd like to share more with them. But that's not what this time in their lives is about. This is their time to separate, to self-direct, to become independent.

I spend a lot of time thinking about this business of letting go - letting go of the children God gives to us for such a brief time before they go off on their own; letting go of old homes, old friends, old places and old dreams.

My mother is who she is. I've become who I am. At some point I realized those two just didn't go together.

I distanced myself, relatively, from my parents for a year or so in my late twenties. It was necessary for me to feel my autonomy. Other than that brief gap, we have always been a very close family.

You discover two things when you're a teenager. One, that your parents are not the idols that you thought they were when you were growing up, if you had nice parents. And two, that you have power over them, and you can upset them and confront them and attack them.

My son is 14, and I only have this time with him. True, it's not like before when I couldn't explain to a little boy why I can't read him his bedtime story six nights a week. And he's even said to me, 'Mom, if you want to do a show somewhere, you should go.'

I certainly feel sad about the alienation from my son.

I think there is a time in every person's life where they have to let their parents go and figure out what being a parent means for themselves.

You live with your family for awhile, and then you move out into the world, and you still have your family; you just don't get to see them every night when you go home for dinner.

When I was younger, I used to spend a lot of time either by myself or with my mom. But when I hit high school, she really became one of my close friends.

My parents sold my childhood home, and I literally was 35 years old, but I cried for, like, two and a half weeks. Like, openly wailed.

What am I supposed to do, Sit around and wait for you? Well I can't do that, And there's no turning back. I need time to move on, I need love to feel strong. Cause I've got time to think it through, And maybe I'm too good for you!

I feel the only way I'm going to be successful in moving on is if I keep a separation.

Sometimes you forgive people simply becuase you still want them in your life.

Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents.

Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away.

The little boy had wandered away from his mother, tacking across the grass toward the play structure. His mother watched him go, proud, tickled, unaware that every time they toddled away from you, they came back a little different, ten seconds older and nearer to the day when they left you for good. Pearl divers in training, staying under a few seconds longer every time.

. . . if we have children. When they are just born we do everything for them. We are omnipotent, they are completely dependent on us, but then when they grow up you must take back your influence on them, to give them freedom.

Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them - a mother's approval, a father's nod - are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.

If you do not give your children freedom, when they grow up, they will break away from the family, and then your hearts will be broken.

You learn to move on without the people you love.