Theresa Rebeck Quotes

Welsh women aren't the most tactile unless they're your relatives. And then you don't want them to be.

Sometimes my mother had difficulty communicating with me about certain topics.

When I was young, I had two older sisters, and since I was the youngest in my family, my mom took me around with her all the time. I was forever with her when she was having coffee in the middle of the afternoon with her three sisters. And they would talk about men. I absorbed a lot of that.

I don't really say too much to my parents. If they ask me to do something I just do it and get it out of the way.

It's about a father and daughter and the daughter's friend and her relationship with her current husband.

A lot of people would rather tour sewers than visit their cousins.

To be honest dinner conversations was the worst bit about being a child and listening to the boring people around me.

I don't believe in pretending to be someone else. I'm what I actually am in real life. For instance, like any normal girl, I fight with my mother. I mean, it is just fine. In fact, I fight daily with my 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 was literally the black sheep of the family, and there were definitely moments of discomfort while my grandmother was working through her racism.

Most people think I am very nice; they think I'm their friend, which is lucky, but it means you're never allowed to be in a bad mood. They take it personally. The worst is when you're on holiday with your family.

My books cover many aspects of daily life through which your children will recognize their own relationships in their families and communities.

When people hear I have six kids and 16 grandkids, they think, 'Oh, boy, you must get a lot of stories from them.' I don't. It's not like I'm behind the sofa in the living room taking notes while the grandkids carry on.

The day I showed up to South Carolina to work, I was with my kid and my ex and our dog and Kirk was hanging with this weird guy and I kind of defined the two of them by his friend and made a vow to avoid him.

I'm endlessly fascinated with the ways families work and the ways they don't.

Everything you say in a family carries meaning from all that was said before. So with friends, there is less likelihood of a few words triggering associations from childhood, where our deepest emotions often are rooted.

I think it's the human condition to be frequently embarrassed by your parents.

It's always interesting to talk to people's moms or sisters or wives. It gives you a different perspective of somebody that everybody already thinks they knew.

I can't remember a time when I wasn't trying to figure out what to say at the dinner table.

The questions I want to ask will revolve around humans, connection, relationships, family, and stories - what are the stories we tell ourselves and each other?

I'm always sad when Dad doesn't like my columns. He waits for them every week and usually likes them, in which case he doesn't say a word - it's only if he's critical that he bothers to call.

When people say, 'Well, I don't talk to my family because they're all conservatives,' or 'I don't talk to my family because they're racist,' I'm, like, 'No, no, no; that's exactly who you need to be talking to.'

I'm an only child, so I don't come from a big family. But it has been my observation from friends who do come from big families that usually, when you have a family fight, on the back end you come out better and stronger for it.

'Modern Family' is unique in that it's telling the story of three different families, which is a huge amount of characters to service.

I never argued with my father, and it so happened that, unfortunately, the same kind of relationship passed on with me and Ranbir.