John Steinbeck Quotes

A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be.

Each father wants their sons to be just like them, really.

I look at him [son Eric] and I think of my dad all the time.... I was born to be a dad.

A few days after we came home from the hospital, I sent a letter to a friend, including a photo of my son and some first impressions of fatherhood. He responded, simply, 'Everything is possible again.' It was the perfect thing to write, because that was exactly how it felt. We could retell our stories and make them better, more representative or aspirational. Or we could choose to tell different stories. The world itself had another chance.

A man ain't nothing but a man. But a son? Well, now, that's somebody.

Few sons are equal to their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them.

The booby father craves a booby son, And by Heaven's blessing thinks himself undone.

A son is like a lopped off branch. As a falcon he comes when he wills and goes where he lists.

If thy daughter marry well, thou hast found a son; if not, thou hast lost a daughter.

I was lucky. My grandmother stepped up for me and said she would take responsibility for me and a compassionate juvenile judge took a chance and gave me one. They were getting ready to send me away to do real time, but they sent me instead to a juvenile alternative day school. And I guess that was the beginning of my turnaround.

We are all, I suppose, beholden to our parents - the question is, how much?

Before I had my first child, I never really looked forward in anticipation to the future. As I watched my son grow and learn, I began to imagine the world this generation of children would live in. I thought of the children they would have, and of their children. I felt connected to life both before my time and beyond it. Children are our link to future generations that we will never see.

I call on those that call me son, Grandson, or great-grandson, On uncles, aunts, great-uncles or great-aunts, To judge what I have done. Have I, that put it into words, Spoilt what old loins have sent?

Fatherhood is asking your son to make up a name rather than tell anybody who he is.

I was interested in the idea of succession - showing a father and a son both in their own time and drawing a contrast

It's in my blood. My great-grandfather made wine and it's a tradition I want to pass on to my son.

It is not the imitation that makes sons; it is sonship that makes imitators.

Fatherhood changes you completely. If things didn't go my way before, I became withdrawn and didn't want to see or listen to anyone. Now, when I arrive home, I see my son and everything is OK. He's the most important thing to me now.

In a personal way, to do with family and the father-son relationship, in a kind of artistic way with regard to him being an art student. I also studied the visual arts at Lancaster University. I then decided to become an actor as he was becoming a musician. And then as an actor/performer, we have similar sort of interests - music hall and that whole world. So, there's a lot that I felt connected with.

You can only be a good father in relationship to your childhood.

It takes just as many men to build a sturdy man, son, as it does to build a tower. You will look back on this time and remember remarkably little of it, excpt the extent to which I tried or did not try.

Few fathers care much for their sons, or at least, most of them care more for their money. Of those who really love their sons, few know how to do it.

To a father waxing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter; sons have spirits of a higher pitch, but less inclined to endearing fondness.

When I was a boy I was my father.

And I am standing in front of my mother, and my whole life I have wanted to make my mother proud. And now I'm going to make my daughter proud.