I Got About Half The Time I Wanted To Write Poetry. I Got About Half The Time I Needed To Be A Father. So There Is Something In Adulthood That Has To Do With Accepting The Half Of Things, Allowing A Renunciation Of The Other Half, Accepting Half A Basket Instead Of A Full Basket.
I Use The Phrase 'sibling Society' To Suggest A Culture Fundamentally Without Fathers, Mothers, Grandfathers, Grandmothers, Or Ancestors. The Thinking Is Horizontal.
And The One Job My Father Knew Of, That He'd Had Experience Of Himself, Was The Army, So He Could Help Me In That Direction.
When I Was Growing Up, I Dreamed About Becoming A Cowgirl, A Detective, A Spy, A Great Actress, Or A Ballerina. Not A Dentist, Like My Father, Or A Homemaker, Like My Mother - And Certainly Not A Writer, Although I Always Loved To Read.
Being President Of Too Many Well-meaning Organizations Put My Father Into An Early Grave. The Lesson In This Was Not Lost On Me.
Millions Of Americans Have Contributed To Building A Stronger Israel; I've Been Proud To Be One Of Them. Last Year, I Went To Jerusalem To Help Dedicate In My Father's Name A New Mda Medical Facility Which Treats People Of All Faiths And All Nationalities Absolutely Equally.
My Father, A Bookkeeper Who Never Earned More Than $11,000 A Year In His Life, Sat There, Writing Out A $25 Check To The Naacp. When I Asked Him Why, He Said Discrimination Against Anyone Is Discrimination Against Us All. And I Never Forgot That. Indeed, His Philanthropy Was A Gift, Not Just To That Organization, But To Me.
I Love It. I Hate That Word (fatherhood), But I Love Being A Father; It's Changed Everything In So Many Ways.
I'm Quite Sensitive To Women. I Saw How My Sister Got Treated By Boyfriends. I Read This Thing That Said When You Are In A Relationship With A Woman, Imagine How You Would Feel If You Were Her Father. That's Been My Approach, For The Most Part.
My Mother's Father Was From Sligo, And He Used To Say It Was The Hardest Thing In The World To Find A Man Alive In Dublin Who Wasn't In The Gpo During The Easter Rising. Twenty Brave Men Marched Into That Post Office, He Said, And Thirty Thousand Marched Out.
If Death Is Your Father, You Don't Ever Have To Worry About What Part Of His Body The Disease Will Strike Next. If Death Is Your Lover, You Don't Have To Be Afraid That He Will Ever Leave You.
