Ayn Rand Quotes

My father was never around. It was almost as if he didn't exist. I would tell my friends he was in Cleveland, on business. Sometimes, every six months or so, he would come by for dinner.

When You Weren't Looking ...why. ...Can't you ...care ...more ...about ...me.

As my own father was sick, and miserably tied to his invalid's chair, he would have been abandoned had not an old servant performed for him a so-called service of love. My mother gave parties while he was perishing in solitude, and amused herself while he was suffering bitter agonies

Childfree women are actually great assets to the planet. Our carbon footprint is smaller than a mom's! And we have enough money to write checks to organizations that help kids get vaccinations, vitamins, and educations yet have plenty of free time to advise your daughter that one day she will regret piercing her lip.

I have three children, each of whom is having an idyllic childhood, probably because I have been at the office the entire time.

Sure, I have friends, plenty of friends, and they all come around wantin' to borrow money. I've always been generous with my friends and family, with money, but selfish with the important stuff like love.

I'm going to be in another city when my kids are teenagers. I'll be like, 'Give me a call when you're done with all that.'

I didn't spend much time with my parents when I was growing up.

The problem is, we live in a society where all that interests us is power and money. So we don't have any interest in our children, and what we leave for our children is not important.

I've gotten very good at detaching whenever I have to go away for three months, which I realize is hard on friends and kind of selfish.

In my experience, there are plenty of bad middle-class parents: those who put their own lives and careers before those of their children and make precious little time available for their offspring, preferring instead to hire in childcare and shower them with the latest and most expensive gadgets.

I sat with him for three hours and we did not exchange a single word. At the end he handed me, as he had done before, an envelope with money in it. It would have been much nicer if he had enclosed a greeting or a loving word. I would have been so pleased if he had.

My relationship with my father is pretty non-existent.

I eventually made the reunion with my father that I'd used as a default daydream throughout my childhood, but by then, we'd both outgrown the only relationship we could have had to each other. I was over 30 by the time I met him again and no longer needed a father.

I don't think there's anything worse than your parents being alive and telling you to go give them some money and just act like they're dead.

When I became the chair of the British Film Institute, I didn't understand how much of my time would be taken up with trying to make a case for the British Film Institute: what it's for, why it exists, why it needs its money.

When you're in a single-parent home, they try to give you a good foundation, but by the time you're 4 or 5 years old, from that point on you're pretty much on your own.

I feel guilty about spending so much time away from home and loved ones.

Selfishness is that detestable vice which no one will forgive in others, and no one is without himself.

My first failure was to be born a child not wanted by his father or mother, as they parted shortly after I was born.

The thing about living without a father if he's always gone is that it takes a long time to realize he isn't coming home.

Do I like foreign aid? Sometimes, but not every time. Don't like giving money to our enemies, but I love giving money to Israel.

Every moment of free time is eaten up by fundraising.

My family - it wasn't an abusive family - they meant well, but they were in their own world.

Some people are money hungry and don't stop to think of who they're affecting and what really matters. There's a lot of ugly.