I often imagine what it would be like if my father were still here to mark his 100th birthday, if Alzheimer’s hadn’t clawed away years, possibilities, hopes. What would he think of all the commemorations and celebrations? – Patti Davis
I would not call myself a veteran conspiracy theorist. Or an obsessed one. I pretty much peaked on the whole conspiracy theory thing in the ’60s, with the grassy knoll, who really killed JFK, and who ordered the hit on Lee Harvey Oswald. – Patti Davis
Just think: people decided one day that a day should be set aside for motherhood and fatherhood. What a great concept that is. – Patti Davis
Puppies, like all babies, grow up fast. Before long, Gracie was no longer barking at her reflection, instead offering a blase look that seemed to say, ‘I know what that is now. I know it’s not another dog.’ – Patti Davis
That is your legacy on this Earth when you leave this Earth: how many hearts you touched. – Patti Davis
My father’s body lies in a stone tomb high on a hill. People walk by, pause, think their own thoughts about him and move on, back to their own lives. I can never move on. He is everywhere. – Patti Davis
The house I grew up in had large plate-glass windows, which birds frequently crashed into headfirst. My father helped me assemble a bird hospital, consisting of a few shoe boxes, some old rags, and tiny dishes for water and food. – Patti Davis
You know, if you hang around this earth long enough you really see how things come full circle. – Patti Davis
I grew up in this era where your parents’ friends were all called aunt and uncle. And then I had an aunt and an aunt. We saw them on holidays and other times. We never talked about it, but I just understood that they were a couple. – Patti Davis
Even if the Bush Administration had flung open the gates to stem-cell research years ago, we would not be at the point of offering treatment today. Christopher Reeve would still have been taken from us. But we would be closer. – Patti Davis
I can’t even consider the prospect of grandchildren because I don’t know if there will be anything left for them on Earth. That’s how serious the problem is. We can’t drink the water or breathe the air, and we’re all dying from some sort of cancer. How many generations can sustain that? It frightens me terribly. – Patti Davis
I really just wanted to be a writer, but people tell you, ‘You should have a backup career,’ so I thought, ‘OK, I’ll act.’ That was the foolishness of my vision for my life – that my backup career would be completely undependable. – Patti Davis
After September 11, I got to understand a little bit of his deep love for this country. – Patti Davis
The memories stayed with him for so long, and stayed vivid. And it didn’t matter to me that he’d already repeated that before. I could hear it forever. – Patti Davis
I really just sat down to write. I mean, I did what most writers do when something happens that’s overwhelming, fascinating, moving, all of that. – Patti Davis
I have a feeling of reverence about my father being in his 80s – a feeling that I want to whisper, take soft steps, not intrude too much. He’s like a stately old cathedral to me now. – Patti Davis
There is a point in the grieving process when you can run away from memories or walk straight toward them. – Patti Davis
To me, Ann Romney sounds like a better candidate than her husband. She put her MS into remission through horseback riding, alternative therapies, and a healthy diet. She knows how to pace herself. She has a sense of humor and an innate honesty, and her hair moves in the wind. Maybe she should run. – Patti Davis
It’s a tender and complicated dance, watching our parents age. We become protective in ways we never were before, and we study them with a mix of sadness and curiosity: Is this what we will be like when we are their age? We tell ourselves to be patient – just answer the same question again as if it wasn’t answered a moment ago. – Patti Davis