Will Self Quotes

I think in any father-son relationship, there's going to be times you say, 'Well, the apple didn't fall far from the tree.'

I grew up to have my father's looks, my father's speech patterns, my father's posture, my father's opinions, and my mother's contempt for my father.

Mothers tend to be more direct. Fathers talk to other fathers about their kids more metaphorically. It's a different way of communication.

Once upon a time there was a widow who had two daughters. The elder was so much like her, both in looks and character, that whoever saw the daughter saw the mother.

We all end up at least somewhat like our parents, especially in the way we deal with our children.

I'm never more encouraged than to hear someone talk about how eerie it is that I move like my father.

I think like my dad, but I have a huge kinship with my mom.

I look like my mother but behave like my father.

I have my mother's heart and father's face.

I am a reflection of my mother.

I look so much like my dad - same chin, same cheekbones, same forehead - and I play a little like him too. But I am my mother's son. I am who I am because of her.

Mothers hold close, fathers let go. Maybe that’s the way of the world.

When we choose to be parents, we accept another human being as part of ourselves, and a large part of our emotional selves will stay with that person as long as we live. From that time on, there will be another person on this earth whose orbit around us will affect us as surely as the moon affects the tides, and affect us in some ways more deeply than anyone else can. Our children are extensions of ourselves.

I know I've got a lot of my mother in me.

I have a lot of my mother in me, but I was just born with the same parts as my father. I don't sound like him. I mean, I can do an impression of him right now, and I do not sound like him. I sound like me. My sense of rhythm I learned from my mother. My melodies, I think sometimes, I get from my mother.

I try to be a friend to my boys just the way my dad was with me. Subconsciously that reflects in my writing.

I am the younger version of my father. I try to be as normal as I can.

It gets to you as a father when your kids don't react to you in the way you imagine.

My stepfather was an exemplary human being. It took me a lot of time to accept him as a parent. But what he did intelligently was he befriended me.

I have two kids and they were by no means blank slates. One is exactly like me, one is exactly like my wife.

I think being the girl of such a huge father figure, you want to be that tomboy... because you are so close to your dad.

When you're little you either want to be like your dad or be directly opposite.

Like with me, I just see my mum and dad as parents - I don't see my dad individually as a man, my mum individually as a woman.

I have tried to create bonds with my daughters like my dad created with me.

I've always kind of gotten my personality from my mom, and whether that's 'star quality' or whatever... a lot of her is in me.