"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found."

"It's interesting, on your second day of existence, to realize that your father is going to blame all the future failures of his life on you."

"Your parents, they give you your life, but then they try to give you their life."

"The world is full of women blindsided by the unceasing demands of motherhood, still flabbergasted by how a job can be terrific and torturous."

"The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one."

"This is part of the essence of motherhood, watching your kid grow into her own person and not being able to do anything about it. Otherwise children would be nothing more than pets."

"Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore."

"Neurotics build castles in the air, psychotics live in them. My mother cleans them."

"It does not always follow that good men are good fathers."

"The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf."