James Lapine Quotes

As kids, we grow up thinking our parents are perfect and flawless - well, some of us - but they're trying to do the best they can.

When I was a kid, I wanted to walk with my dad's limp - my dad was my hero - but that infuriated him, and he would make me walk back and forth in the living room until I walked without it.

I think that parents grow up with an idea of what they want their kids to be like - and then their kids grow up to be people of themselves, of their own.

My parents were obsessed with us being normal kids, so I never knew movie stars. They didn't want us to be Hollywood brats.

I was an only child, and I spent a lot of time alone. My dad was an only child, too, so we didn't have a big family, and I was really close with both of my parents. Like any kid, I thought I knew more than they did.

My parents did their best - that earns a lot of forgiveness. But they say children grow up in spite of their parents, and I think I did.

Ever wonder why people are so determined to reach for white picket fences, supposed normalcy, a nuclear family? Well, try growing up without one.

And a great misunderstanding is that children think their parents are grown-up, and parents feel obliged to act as if they were.

Well, I don't know if this is true of everyone, but I have this relationship with my parents where, despite however mature or articulate or grown-up I think I've become, as soon as I go home, I turn into this petulant 13-year-old, especially with the tone of my voice.

Parents have to understand: if your kid isn't you, don't blame the kid.

I believe that children are, by nature, very forgiving. I don't think children expect their parents to be perfect. I think they demand that their parents be real.

When you are born into a family like mine, you don't really know anything else. But you quickly realise that it's more about other people and how they are dealing with it. Some can be hugely in awe or uncomfortable, but to you, your parents are just your parents.

Being the only man in the household with my mom definitely helped me grow up fast.

I've only recently realized that I have a radically different relationship with my parents than a lot of people.

Part of my evolution has been to learn how painful most people's childhoods are. They grow up not liking themselves, not loving themselves. Ask people if they were lovable the minute they were born, and watch them sit back and have to think about it. One lady said, 'I suppose so.' That's painful.

My father was this big, tough guy, almost heroic in proportion to me as a child. It was only later that I saw how fearful he was.

I don't think I was a monstrous child. I don't think I was ever allowed to be.

I had a very strict upbringing with my dad and was very close to my mum, who was extremely loving.

Anyone who grows up with parents who are very influential, there are cases where people run away from that if they have parents who are really lame.

In real life, my parents pretty much approved of all my boyfriends. I guess I was doing something wrong. I should have been more rebellious.

My father made with me one serious mistake which I see parents about me making. He got himself somehow into the awkward position of an authority; I thought he knew and was right on everything - for a while.

We're living in a time when parenting is not at all mirroring the way I was parented. For me, I just followed my parents around on their errands; when they were busy on the phone, I was quiet. It's a different kettle of fish these days: They run the house, and you listen to their music, and you go to their appointments.

People say, 'Oh, to be the daughter of Picasso!' But it's not as extravagant as it seems. He was very special, very vibrant, but he was my father. I didn't have another.

You don't want your children to look at you like you are anything special other than their dad.

My parents were pretty liberal, but they were still parents. I definitely had my teenage rebellion.