Andre Dubus III Quotes

A father's disappointment can be a very powerful tool.

I remember when I was a little boy my father didn't love me; he couldn't. He loved my older brother but he couldn't love me somehow, at least not in a way I could understand it.

I didn't grow up with my father in my life, and that bred a resentment in me, and it bred a mentality in me that made me very angry.

My dad never explained anything growing up.

My dad used to ignore me when I was a kid. He couldn't stand my voice, so he just used to ignore me, and then he'd impersonate me.

I never felt like I had a mother.

My father never kissed me, hugged me or told me that he loved me. As my only living parent, he became the filter through which I saw myself, the possibilities for my life, the world and all men. He was a conflicted and dark filter.

I sit there pouring out my woes year after year, coming up with one enormity after another about my mother and the way she let me down; but it doesn't make me any the less fearful.

My little son, Atticus, desperately needs his dad and I haven't been there for him... and that's sad.

I want to be the dad that my father never was.

My parents got divorced when I was nine months old, and my father would only pop in and see me once a year, if that. I don't have much contact with him.

The interesting thing about an absent father is, for a child, you don't know he's absent. You just think he's... tardy.

I've always wanted to be what my father never was to me.

I love my mum and dad, but they were shocking providers and carers.

I suspect I wasn't loved enough as a child.

I have no worthwhile memories of my father, therefore no idea of what a father's role should be.

You know, when you have a father who's pretty well known but you don't see him, the last thing you want to do is start talking about him all the time to people.

I never experienced any feelings of closeness and caring from my parents.

My dad was a terrible father. Dreadful. But he had a very difficult childhood. He was fostered - he never knew who his father was. So he had a very different attitude to family and kids. I don't have any issues. I'm not suffering some secret angst.

Being a child that grew up with a single mom back in the '70s, Father's Day to me was always a very uncomfortable time. At school, we would make Father's Day cards for our dads, and I usually mailed one to my dad, and he hardly ever responded.

I like my parents but they are just not good parents. They are nice enough people. I'm not interested in hurting their feelings.

Parents - especially step-parents - are sometimes a bit of a disappointment to their children. They don't fulfill the promise of their early years.

My childhood was defined by my father's absence. His presence looms so large. Up until the age of 18, he was a superstar for me.

My father never put me on his lap and said he loved me.

When one has not had a good father, one must create one.