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Love is of that excellent nature, that it is esteemed by the best of men, and accepted from the meanest persons; what then is the affection of a Father!

It's a complicated thing, knowing how much pain my father caused in my life and the lives of others whom I love, yet still holding love for him in my heart. No matter what he did, he was my father. He helped create the person I am.

True love is not a strong, fiery, impetuous passion. It is, on the contrary, an element calm and deep. It looks beyond mere externals, and is attracted by qualities alone. It is wise and discriminating, and its devotion is real and abiding.

What can be more clear and sound in explanation, than the love of a parent to his child?

There's love for your parents, your family, your spouse, your partner, your friends, but the nature of the connection you have with your child, there's nothing like it. It has its own character and it's so serious and so powerful, and so it's a prism through which I see everything.

I love my father very much. I attribute so much of the person I am today to the values that he and my mother set for us, and the way they encouraged us every day of our lives to go out and find what we love doing and to fulfill our potential and really be happy.

You can love someone like your son, even if he's not your biological son, and you can love someone like your father, even if he's not your biological father.

In person, my father is so friendly, so considerate, so funny, and so real. I have admired my father all of my life, and I love him with all my heart.

Being a dad is like - there's nothing more important. So the exploration of that in stories, with parents and fathers and brothers, siblings, I just think that you're always in the terrain of love, whether it's absence of love or the giving of love or the desire for love.

You think you know what love is - until you have a child and discover that unconditional mother love.