110 Quotes by Peter Hedges

My formative years were all shaped by a mother who was very sad and had a drinking problem, while my father was lonely and angry. He was an Episcopal priest and raised four kids on his own.

Let the story lead you. If the story needs to be dark, let it go dark. If it's a sweet, good-for-the-world story, that's what it is.

Maudlin scenes where people pour their heart out to one another? I don't want to see it.

The Orpheus myth is my favorite myth, and the prodigal son is my favorite parable.

Family is paramount to me in my life, and my own comes first above everything, and that's something universal that people can relate to.

So much of life's dramas, good and bad, play out against family and so it's really inspiring for any number of stories in all the fields I write in.

When I was a young lad just out of college at the North Carolina School of the Arts, I directed several plays that I wrote. It was essential theater, meaning we had no money, so our set may be six stools and two chairs and eight cream pies.

It's not easy to be a good or wise parent. You do the best you can.

I took a look at my own life and realized that I was overinvesting in my kids. I realized that I had to get out of the way and let them be who they wanted to be, not what I wanted them to be.