Haskell Wexler Quotes

Our parents have, by far, the greatest influence on shaping who we are and how we deal with the world.

I am a product of my father's work.

I thank God that I'm a product of my parents. That they infected me with their intelligence and energy for life, with their thirst for knowledge and their love. I'm grateful that I know where I come from.

Families are endlessly fascinating. We all have one, and they have a great impact on who we are and what we do - Freudian as that is.

I think naturally my orientation is from my father.

My parents split up when I was about 2. I realize more and more how much I'm like my father. My gentleness comes from my mother.

I've always cared about issues, always thought through problems. I don't know how much that comes from my personality or my mum.

I believe we are more a product of our homes than of any other single influence.

My mother was never very famous when I was growing up, so it wasn't so difficult. It was only when I left home and went to university that she become this style icon.

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.

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.

You always have that moment where you grow up and you're like, "Oh, my god, I'm being exactly like my mother." I think that's everyone's greatest hope and worst fear.

It's funny how two people can grow up in the same town, go to the same school, have the same friends, and end up so totally different. Family, or lack of it, counts for more than you'd think.

Perhaps I should have pointed out more often that without her (mother's) guidance and example I might have gone straight from short pants to Long Bay Gaol, which in those days was still in use and heavily populated by larcenous young men who had chosen their parents less wisely.

This tug-of-war often obscures what's also happening between us. I am your mother, the first mile of your road. Me and all my obvious and hidden limitations. That means that in addition to possibly wrecking you, I have the chance to give to you what was given to me: a decent childhood, more good memories than bad, some values, a sense of tribe, a run at happiness. You can't imagine how seriously I take that - even as I fail you. Mothering you is the first thing of consequence that I have ever done.

The word dysfunction has, I think, served its purpose and now has lost its meaning. Every family, like every person, is imperfect, after all. The idea that there is a family somewhere who functions, is an odd concept. In my youth I was running from my family to try to find out who I was-their influence distracted me. Now I see what a powerful hold they have, no matter what.

We all carry our mothers inside us.

My father's wit, and my mother's tongue, assist me!

My father, to whom I owe so much, never told me the difference between right and wrong; now I think that's why I remain so greatly in his debt.

I think every person's parents teach them a lot and also mess them up royally.

Mercy Falls was all about rumors, and the rumor on Jack was that he got his short fuse from his dad. I didn't know about that. It seemed like you ought to pick the sort of person you would be, no matter what your parents were like.

I've never written for anybody else. For me, it was a challenge. I write for me. I don't write for anybody else. And what was good about it was that I was writing for somebody I knew. I knew what my mother thinks and how she feels. So it was finding that creative spirit to write about my mother.

[Margaret Thatcher] admitted to being the daughter of her father but not the daughter of her mother!

Whatever role we were in our family of birth, we take on this persona and in your 20s and 30s in particular, you end up thinking that's you and that isn't necessarily you.

There is no influence so powerful as that of the mother, but next in rank in efficacy is that of the schoolmaster.