The breakdown of the black community in order to maintain slavery began with the breakdown of the black family. Men and women were not legally allowed to get married because you couldn't have that kind of love. It might get in the way of the economics of slavery. Your children could be taken from you and literally sold down the river.

And I keep saying whether you like the president or not everybody has to pull together and help the president because as the president goes so goes the country as the country goes so goes your job your ability to feed your family your government.

In the investigation of a neurotic style of life we must always suspect an opponent and note who suffers most because of the patient's condition. Usually this is a member of the family.

We are special because we've been united not by a common race or ethnicity. We're bound together by common values. That family is the most important institution in society. That almighty God is the source of all we have.

I don't have to look up my family tree because I know that I'm the sap.

Christmas can have a real melancholy aspect 'cause it packages itself as this idea of perfect family cohesion and love and you're always going to come up short when you measure your personal life against the idealized personal lives that are constantly thrust in our faces primarily by TV commercials.

Probably the worst time in a person's life is when they have to kill a family member because they are the devil. But otherwise it's been a pretty good day.

My father was brought up in an orphanage in the Catskills. He was a factory worker. And because his family wasn't there for him family was everything. We could disagree inside the house but outside the house it was us against the world. So when I became a drag actor he looked sideways but said okay.

If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest craziest most dysfunctional family in the world all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair you'll be going 'you know we're alright. We are dang near royalty.'

Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go according to any rules. They're not like aches or wounds they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material.