Fathers Quotes - Fathers should make you feel safe
“You
can know a thing to death and be for all purposes completely ignorant of it. A
man can know his father, or his son, and there might still be nothing between
them but loyalty and love and mutual incomprehension.”
―
Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
“Dads.
Do you not realize that a child is what you tell them they are? That people
almost always become what they are labeled? Was whatever your child just did
really the “dumbest thing you’ve ever seen somebody do”? Was it really the
“most ridiculous thing they ever could have done”? Do you really believe that
your child is an idiot? Because she now does. Think about that. Because you
said it, she now believes it. Bravo.”
―
Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing: The Best of Year One
“Dad
had once said, Trust your mind, Rob. If it smells like shit but has writing
across it that says Happy Birthday and a candle stuck down in it, what is it?
Is
there icing on it? he'd said.
Dad
had done that thing of squinting his eyes when an answer was not quite there
yet.”
―
George Saunders, Tenth of December
“She
serves me a piece of it a few minutes
out
of the oven. A little steam rises
from
the slits on top. Sugar and spice -
cinnamon
- burned into the crust.
But
she's wearing these dark glasses
in
the kitchen at ten o'clock
in
the morning - everything nice -
as
she watches me break off
a
piece, bring it to my mouth,
and
blow on it. My daughter's kitchen,
in
winter. I fork the pie in
and
tell myself to stay out of it.
She
says she loves him. No way
could
it be worse.”
―
Raymond Carver
“At
sixteen, you still think you can escape from your father. You aren't listening
to his voice speaking through your mouth, you don't see how your gestures
already mirror his; you don't see him in the way you hold your body, in the way
you sign your name. You don't hear his whisper in your blood.”
―
Salman Rushdie, East, West
“Dads.
Do your faces light up when you first see your child in the morning or when you
come home from work? Do you not understand that a child’s entire sense of value
can revolve around what they see in your face when you first see them?”
―
Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing: The Best of Year One
“When
Enebeli Okwara sent his girl out in the world, he did not know what the world
did to daughters. He did not know how quickly it would wick the dew off her,
how she would be returned to him hollowed out, relieved of her better parts.”
―
Lesley Nneka Arimah, What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky
“I
was eleven when my father left, so neither of us really knew our fathers. I’d
met mine of course, but then I only knew my dad as a child knows a parent, as a
sort of crude outline filled in with one or two colors. I’d never seen my
father scared or cry. I’d never heard him admit to any wrongdoing. I have no
idea what he dreamed of. And once I’d seen a smile pinned to one cheek and
darkness to the other when my mum had yelled at him. Now he was gone, and I was
left with just an impression—one of male warmth, big arms, and loud laughter.”
―
Lloyd Jones, Mister Pip
“Fathers
should make you feel safe.”
―
Karen Cushman, The Loud Silence of Francine Green
“Do
you not realize that your kids are going to make mistakes, and a lot of them?
Do you not realize the damage you do when you push your son’s nose into his
mishaps or make your daughter feel worthless because she bumped or spilled
something? Do you have any idea how easy it is to make your child feel abject?
It’s as simple as letting out the words, “why would you do that!?” or “how many
times have I told you…”
―
Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing: The Best of Year One
“Sometimes
I'd see my father, walking past my building on his way to another nowhere. I
could have given him a key, offered a piece of my floor. A futon. A bed. But I
never did. If I let him inside I would become him, the line between us would
blur, my own slow-motion car wreck would speed up. The slogan on the side of a
moving company truck read TOGETHER WE ARE GOING PLACES--modified by a vandal or
a disgruntled employee to read TOGETHER WE ARE GOING DOWN. If I went to the
drowning man the drowning man would pull me under. I couldn't be his life
raft.”
―
Nick Flynn, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
“*marissa
tries to get her single, working mother's attention by suggesting something
outrageous, to which mom replies:*
'You're
a smart girl. Use your head and avoid any guy who reminds you of your father.”
―
Camille Noe Pagan, The Art of Forgetting
“Doesn't
seem quite real. It's not meaningful. I can't quite imagine myself being 73.
That's the age my father was! [Laughter.] How can I be his age? It's weird.”
―
Don DeLillo
“Well,
Betsy," he said, "your mother tells me that you are going to use
Uncle Keith's trunk for a desk. That's fine. You need a desk. I've often
noticed how much you like to write. The way you eat up those advertising
tablets from the store! I never saw anything like it. I can't understand it
though. I never write anything but checks myself. "
"Bob!"
said Mrs. Ray. "You wrote the most wonderful letters to me before we were
married. I still have them, a big bundle of them. Every time I clean house I
read them over and cry."
"Cry,
eh?" said Mr. Ray, grinning. "In spite of what your mother says,
Betsy, if you have any talent for writing, it comes from family. Her brother
Keith was mighty talented, and maybe you are too. Maybe you're going to be a
writer."
Betsy
was silent, agreeably abashed.
"But
if you're going to be a writer," he went on, "you've got to read.
Good books. Great books. The classics.”
―
Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown
“His
large ears
Hear
everything
A
hermit wakes
And
sleeps in a hut
Underneath
His
gaunt cheeks.
His
eyes blue, alert,
Disappointed,
And
suspicious,
Complain
I
Do
not bring him
The
same sort of
Jokes
the nurses
Do.
He is a bird
Waiting
to be fed,—
Mostly
beak— an eagle
Or a
vulture, or
The
Pharoah's servant
Just
before death.
My
arm on the bedrail
Rests
there, relaxed,
With
new love. All
I
know of the Troubadours
I
bring to this bed.
I do
not want
Or
need to be shamed
By
him any longer.
The
general of shame
Has
discharged
Him,
and left him
In
this small provincial
Egyptian
town.
If I
do not wish
To
shame him, then
Why
not love him?
His
long hands,
Large,
veined,
Capable,
can still
Retain
hold of what
He
wanted. But
Is
that what he
Desireed?
Some
Powerful
engine
Of
desire goes on
Turning
inside his body.
He
never phrased
What
he desired,
And
I am
his son.”
―
Robert Bly, Selected Poems
“Maybe
not. But maybe that's how the world changes, Isaiah. One father, one child, at
a time.”
―
Barbara Samuel, The Sleeping Night
“I
got my dad a great father's Day present. He called to say: 'Ach. Zis present is
so good I now think it vas almost vorth having children.”
―
Johann Hari
“It’s
time we stand up and demand more of the fathers of this world. It’s time we
stop buying into their rationalizations and their sorry explanations. It’s time
we give our kids a fighting chance.”
―
Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing: The Best of Year One
