I blinked. Because even though my dad never, ever complained about being a young dad, I always wondered about his regrets. How his need to keep abandoned, sad things might apply to me, too. ― Maurene Goo

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What lingers from the parent's individual past, unresolved or incomplete, often becomes part of her or his irrational parenting.

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The measure of a man is determined by the distance between his knees and the ground. The less the distance, the greater the man. ― Craig D. Lounsbrough

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And his expression, now. I realized right then -- how disappointed you could be when you were all in with someone. When you cared so deeply. How your heart could break, so precisely and quickly. ― Maurene Goo

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If I have held a part of myself back from my children, I have obviously spent some time calculating the expense of being a father. And the fact is, a real father doesn't do that kind of math. ― Craig D. Lounsbrough

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watching his son in quick pulses of attention. ― Thomas Pynchon

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Sons want their fathers' attention until the precise moment when fathers want their sons'. ― Fredrik Backman

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I wanted you to know that the world in its entirety could never be found in the schools, alone, nor the streets, alone, nor in the trophy case. I wanted you to claim the whole world, as it is. ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

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I think of your grandmother calling me and noting how you were growing tall and would one day try to “test me.” And I said to her that I would regard that day, should it come, as the total failure of fatherhood because if all I had over you were my hands, then I really had nothing at all. ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

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Some men became fathers mainly to show that they are not gay. Some, only to hide the fact that they are. ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

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