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Fatherhood Quote by Anthony Hopkins

"My father was grounded, a very meat-and-potatoes man. He was a baker"

About this Quote

Hopkins isn’t just sketching a dad; he’s quietly undercutting the myth that greatness has to come from glamour, pedigree, or a childhood steeped in “the arts.” “Grounded” does double duty: it’s temperament (steady, unshowy) and class location (a life lived close to necessity). “Meat-and-potatoes” is cultural shorthand for a man whose values are practical, whose pleasures are modest, whose pride comes from competence, not self-mythology. Then Hopkins lands the detail that makes it tactile: “He was a baker.” Suddenly the father isn’t an abstract moral influence but a worker with early hours, flour on his forearms, a trade where patience and repetition are the point.

The subtext is affectionate, but also strategic. Hopkins, a performer often associated with refinement and psychological precision, roots his origin story in ordinary labor. It’s a way of saying: I come from something solid. In celebrity narratives, parents often become either trauma engines or inspirational saints. Hopkins chooses neither; he chooses a job. That choice signals respect without sentimentality.

Context matters, too. Hopkins’ generation is steeped in a British sensibility that treats emotional display as suspect and craft as noble. Baking becomes a metaphor for craft: show up, measure carefully, understand heat and timing, do it again tomorrow. The intent isn’t to romanticize the working class; it’s to claim an ethic. Whatever theatrical grandeur Hopkins has mastered, he frames it as built on a father’s unglamorous discipline - the kind that feeds people before it impresses them.

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APA Style (7th ed.)
Hopkins, Anthony. (2026, January 16). My father was grounded, a very meat-and-potatoes man. He was a baker. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-father-was-grounded-a-very-meat-and-potatoes-137853/

Chicago Style
Hopkins, Anthony. "My father was grounded, a very meat-and-potatoes man. He was a baker." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-father-was-grounded-a-very-meat-and-potatoes-137853/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My father was grounded, a very meat-and-potatoes man. He was a baker." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-father-was-grounded-a-very-meat-and-potatoes-137853/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.

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Anthony Hopkins

Anthony Hopkins (born December 31, 1937) is a Actor from Welsh.

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