# Quote — Andrew Solomon, Far From The Tree

> Children ensnared me the moment I connected fatherhood with loss, but I am not sure I would have noticed that if I hadn't been immersed in this research. Encountering so much strange love, I fell into its bewitching patterns and saw how splendor can illuminate even the most abject vulnerabilities. I had witnessed and learned the terrifying joy of unbearable responsibility, recognized how it conquers everything else. Sometimes, I had thought the heroic parents in this book were fools, enslaving themselves to a life's journey with their alien children, trying to breed identity out of misery. I was startled to learn that my research had built me a plank, and that I was ready to join them on their ship.

- Author: [Andrew Solomon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrew-solomon.md)
- Book: [Far From The Tree](https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrew-solomon/far-from-the-tree.md)
- Page: 702
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andrew_Solomon#Far_from_the_Tree_(2012)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrew-solomon/far-from-the-tree/children-ensnared-me-the

## More from this book

> I started this book to forgive my parents and ended it by becoming a parent. Understanding backward liberated me to live forward.

p. 677 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrew-solomon/far-from-the-tree/i-started-this.md)

> Insofar as I have written a self-help book, it is a how-to manual for receptivity: a description of how to tolerate what cannot be cured, and an argument that cures are not always appropriate even when they are feasible.

p. 701 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrew-solomon/far-from-the-tree/insofar-as-i-have.md)

> I want more than anything for my children to be happy, and I love them because they are sad, and the erratic project of kneading that sadness into joy is the engine of my life as a father, as a son, as a friend—and as a writer.

p. 701 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/andrew-solomon/far-from-the-tree/i-want-more.md)