Peter Hedges Quotes

My father's drinking was sometimes a problem. And a great deal went unspoken. He was not particularly acute or articulate about the emotions. But he was very affectionate towards me.

I didn't know my dad for a long time. My dad was on drugs and my dad was at the VA Hospital, my dad was off in his own world selling drugs or using them or there would be crack heads in the house or whatever it would be.

I grew up around a lot of aggressive guys. My parents used to take me to AA meetings when I was very young. So I know aggression, I know insanity.

My Struggles is a record close to me. It's about what I went through at home living with an abusive father.

All he cares about is going out there with his Jack Daniels bottle. Nothing has changed. That's kind of sad. If David was doing better than he used to be, then that would be different. But it was a joke and he made it that way.

Growing up in bars might sound like child abuse. And if it does, then you're what my mom would call 'Protestants.'

My family - my mother and father had gone through such a hard time that by the time I graduated from sixth grade, they were separated.

Addiction's some kind of disease? No, it's not. It's a mask for pain that usually comes from childhood and fatherlessness.

I spent my childhood alone, overweight and ugly, angry at everything, and knowing nothing of a life beyond this sadness.

But there's no joy at all, people say "Oh well he's drunk and happy let him sleep it off"--The poor drunkard is *crying*--He's crying for his mother and father and great brother and great friend, he's crying for help. (p.111)

I never had any childhood, for the word means sunshine and freedom from care. I had a starved and pinched little childhood, as far as love and merriment go.

I think people tend to see the bigger point, which is maybe not fitting in and feeling like you didn't have the childhood that you expected you would have, or that you felt lonely or struggled with drugs and alcohol or just that you were able to achieve your dreams.

I was brought up in a very poor and very violent household. I spent much of my childhood being afraid.

When you stop drinking, you have to deal with this marvelous personality that started you drinking in the first place.

I come from a place where there's violence and inarticulacy. I worked in a pub from the age of 12 or 13. I used to see people smashing glasses over each other. I was never tough. I was scared of them.

I once had a lot of hatred, mainly toward my father, an alcoholic.

A lot of the time, I was unhappy as a kid, so I spent it, I guess, in a gray place.

I have been a depressed kid. I wanted to lead a quiet life, never wanted to be an actor.

My daughter lived with my wife being ill since she was 2.

John Adams and John Quincy Adams had six sons. Two of these were great statesman and four were drunks. For the Adams family it was the White House or the Ale House …. Family pressure is part of what drives people to drink.

My folks were drunks, and I had a rough childhood - really rough - in fact, rougher than I thought about.

Unhappy is he to whom the memories of childhood bring only fear and sadness.

My dad was an alcoholic, growing up, so I knew how scary that was from a child's perspective - the volatility.

My dad was a violent alcoholic. Really aggressive.

My mother and stepfather were in Vaudeville. And my stepfather was an alcoholic. It was a lot of roller coaster times. But it's all I knew. I think they did the best they could under the circumstances, with me and all the family.