Parenting & Family Quote by Joe Mantegna

A little confession, a little boundary-setting: that’s the sly power in “I’ve loved it, but I have a wife and two children.” Joe Mantegna isn’t offering a grand philosophy so much as a compact moral accounting. The first clause gives you appetite and pleasure, the unvarnished admission that the thing in question wasn’t dutiful or miserable - it was good. Then the second clause drops like a deadbolt. Not regret exactly, but responsibility arriving on time.

As an actor, Mantegna knows how to land a line that carries two emotions at once. “I’ve loved it” is warm, even seductive; it invites you to imagine excess, obsession, a life spent chasing a role, a city, a habit, a late-night set. “But” flips the camera angle. The wife and two children aren’t background details - they’re the human proof that this speaker’s life isn’t solely his. It’s a reminder that desire doesn’t get veto power when other people depend on your decisions.

The subtext is distinctly modern: you can be passionate without being perpetually available. In a culture that markets total devotion to work, fame, or “the lifestyle,” Mantegna’s line makes a quieter argument for limits. It’s not puritanical; it’s relational. The point isn’t that the pleasure was wrong. The point is that it isn’t the only claim on him, and he’s choosing to be the kind of man whose credits include showing up at home.