"Parents - especially step-parents - are sometimes a bit of a disappointment to their children. They don't fulfill the promise of their early years"

"Raising children is an incredibly hard and risky business in which no cumulative wisdom is gained: each generation repeats the mistakes the previous one made"

"Now we maintain that we cannot be afford to be concerned about 6 percent of the children in this country, black children, who you allow to come into white schools. We have 94 percent who still live in shacks. We are going to be concerned about those 94 percent"

"If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses"

"A woman should be home with the children, building that home and making sure there's a secure family atmosphere"

"Our children are counting on us to provide two things: consistency and structure. Children need parents who say what they mean, mean what they say, and do what they say they are going to do"

"I go to Malawi twice a year. It's where two of my children were adopted from, and I have a lot of projects there that I go and check up on and children who I look after. It's sort of a commitment that I've made to this country and the hundreds of thousands of children there who have been orphaned by AIDS"

"I think every parent, every generation has wanted their children to do better and have a higher standard of living. But I think there's too much guilt"

"For children to take morality seriously they must be in the presence of adults who take morality seriously. And with their own eyes they must see adults take morality seriously"

"Whatever happened to the good ole days, when children worked in factories?"

"I feel very blessed to have two wonderful, healthy children who keep me completely grounded, sane and throw up on my shoes just before I go to an awards show just so I know to keep it real"