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I'm sure there was some part of his soul was intrinsically happy, but he probably had to go through some permutations to really get that to blossom. I'm sure Dad had his challenges, but I think that joy was there from the beginning and he had to find a way to make his life support that and express that.

Dad lived his life in a way that it was his character, not his circumstances, that dictated what his life looked like.

I wasn't anything special as a father. But I loved them and they knew it.

My father was a joyous, joyous spirit, he really was. He was a hedonist, that was just - he enjoyed life, thrust up to the elbows with it. He was a terrible father. I don't know that he was parented that well.

Father was very sympathetic, and if the hero of a romance was good or to be pitied, his eyes would fill with tears until he could not see.

I think Dad didn't really treat us like children; he treated us more like little adults. We were good kids.

While I didn't have a father around, I did have - and what I want my children to both experience - the ability to explore, experiment and enjoy life as a kid.

Being a father can 'unreason' your worldview, or at least make it very flexible, and that can create all sorts of fun and insights. It's sad that children's open-eyed wonder and sense of play begin to fade as they approach adolescence. One grand function of fathering is to keep the fading to a minimum.

There was a great complexity to my father. He was a devoted family man. But, in the same breath, he simply was not suited to an anchored life. He should have been somebody who had a backpack, an old map, a bit of change in his pocket and that was it - roaming the world.

Young people know how important it is for dads to be involved in their lives. As I travel the country and talk with students, some of them tell me that their lives would be totally different if their father was around.