My father who died a few years ago was a good simple very honest man. His faith and affection for his family was just unassailable without question.

No matter how old we become we can still call them 'Holy Mother' and 'Father' and put a child-like trust in them.

What does God the Father look like? Although I've never seen Him I believe - as with the Holy Spirit - He looks like Jesus looked on earth.

But whatever my failure I have this thing to remember - that I was a pioneer in my profession just as my grandfathers were in theirs in that I was the first man in this section to earn his living as a writer.

The one phrase you can use is that success has a thousand fathers and failure is an orphan.

I think I've always been somebody since the deaths of my father and brother who was afraid to hope. So I was more prepared for failure and for rejection than for success.

The biggest problem in my life is trying to be the kind of man that I want to be the father that I want to be and how to process the failure of my marriage.

Before I was married I didn't consider my failure to manage even basic hand tools a feminist inadequacy. I thought it had more to do with being Jewish. The Jews I knew growing up didn't do 'do-it-yourself.' When my father needed to hammer something he generally used his shoe and the only real tool he owned was a pair of needle-nose pliers.

While it is important for people to see your promise you must also remember that hope is the keeper of both happiness and disappointment the father of both progress and failure.

You're working on being a father so that is something that when you experience it you'll understand the profundity of wanting to protect something dear to you.