This is about my someday daughter, already stung stained with insecurity begging, "Mom, will I be pretty?" I will wipe that question from your mouth like cheap lipstick and answer, "No, the word 'pretty' is unworthy of everything you will be and no child of mine will be contained in five letters. You will be pretty intelligent, pretty creative, pretty amazing, but, you will never be merely pretty."
- Katie Makkai

Every time she blinks
she strikes somebody blind.
Everything she thinks
blows her tiny mind.
That's my daughter in the water,
who'd have ever thought her?
Who'd have ever thought?
That's my daughter in the water,
I lost everytime I fought her
Yea, I lost every time.

- Loudon Wainright III, Daughter

“Mothers and Daughters”

There is a cord between us
not yet cut
On it we move
like tightrope walkers
novices
uncertain of the net
Take tentative steps
across the gulf
toward one another
Careful
not wishing to turn back
Hopeful
that keeping balance
we can meet
can then embrace
and pass each other
as we must

- Maude Meehan

Watching your daughter being collected by her date feels like handing over a million dollar Stradivarius to a gorilla.
- Jim Bishop

10 Things I Hate About You: "That must be Nigel with the brie."

Oops? My insurance does not cover PMS!

Hello, Katarina. Make anyone cry today?
Sadly, no. But it's only 4:30.

I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?
I think you can in Europe.

Alright, wait a minute. No drinking, no drugs, no kissing, no tattoos, no piercings, *no* ritual animal slaughters of any kind. Oh, God, I'm giving them ideas.

And I'll get to sleep at night. The deep slumber of a father whose daughters aren't out being impregnated.

Alright. Uh, I talked to her; I got the scoop.
What'd she say?
"Hates him with the fire of a thousand suns." That's a direct quote.

Mr. Stratford, it's just a party!
...And hell is just a sauna.

Maybe if we were the last two people alive, and there were no sheep. Are there sheep?

Excuse me, uh, just one question before we start. Should you be drinking alcohol when you don't have a liver?

I still maintain that he kicked himself in the balls.

This morning, I delivered a set of twins to a fifteen-year-old girl, do you know what she said to me?
"I'm a crack-whore who should have made my skeazy boyfriend wear a condom"?

Mr. Bennett: "If my children are silly, I must hope to be always sensible of it."

Mrs. Bennett: "Yes--but as it happens, they are all of them very clever."

Mr. Bennett: "This is the only point, I flatter myself, on which we do not agree. I had hoped that our sentiments coincided in every particular, but I must so far differ from you as to think youngest daughter uncommonly foolish."

Pride and Prejudice (Volume 1, Chapter 7)

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around.
- Love Actually

Father of the Bride, Parts I & II

"Armani doesn't make a blue tuxedo." - Franck

"...So I am removing the superfluous buns." - George

"And then you're sitting there, with rice on your tux, wondering what happened to your life." - George

"How would you like to go through life with the name Cooper Banks-Mackenzie? The kid's gonna sound like a law firm." - Matty

"Two Vastnick is like, "Bye, George! See you next Thursday!" - Franck

"Are you telling me I might have a granddaughter named Sophie Zankman?" - George

Bummer man, he delivers.