American couples have gone to such lengths to avoid the interference of in-laws that they have to pay marriage counselors to interfere between them.

I was never against marriage per se. Before feminism, I didn't think you had any choice. In fact, for a long time I always assumed I would get married. I just didn't see any marriages I wanted to emulate, so I kept putting it off.

I am not into marriage. You look at all the marriages breaking down and all the people cheating on their marriages, and you become cynical. Marriage is nothing but a label.

I have a lot of respect for marriage.

Divorce is not the end of the world. It's worse to stay in an unhealthy marriage. That's a worse example for the children.

Career and marriage don't have to do anything with each other.

It's a lot of work to make a marriage work. Just because you have been married for a while doesn't mean you can sit back and relax. You still have to be on your toes. A marriage needs constant attention.

Particularly black Americans, many of them, from that I have seen and conversations I've had, are sort of insulted that the civil rights movement is being hijacked - the rhetoric of the civil rights movement is being hijacked for something like same sex marriage. Black Americans tend to have a higher degree of religiosity.

I would like it to be known that I have decided not to marry Group Capt. Peter Townsend. Mindful of the church's teaching that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have resolved to put these considerations before any others.

The writing partnership is a good collaboration for the same reason the marriage works, which is two people who can stand alone choosing to stand together.

I couldn't bear a marriage in which one partner hinges on the other.

Gay marriage has jumped out of the closet on to the front page. Everyone from the president of the U.S. to retired four-star general Colin Powell is embracing the issue, now supported by most Americans. Still, a few people, like former First Lady Laura Bush appear to be conflicted.

I'm not ready to rush into marriage.

Gay marriage will be universally accepted in time. But if I may be so bold as to say to gays and lesbians, don't wait for that time to arrive. Just as my father and his generation did not 'wait' for their civil rights, nor should you. The toothpaste ain't going back in the tube. The tide has turned.

There is a kind of woman who is economically powerful, professionally powerful, who threatens a white male grip on power that has a long historic precedent in the country. Independent women living outside of marriage threaten all kinds of things about the way power is supposed to work.

Marriage was probably the worst mistake I ever made in my life.

There are four stages in a marriage. First there's the affair, then the marriage, then children and finally the fourth stage, without which you cannot know a woman, the divorce.

I have become more and more afraid about marriage and parenting. I think it's because I am getting older. Of course, there will be a lot to learn, and I also know that the experience will help in my acting.

Somebody who has been in a very bad wreck is going to be very conscientious about not speeding through a yellow light... You just learn so many good lessons when you go through a failed marriage.

If your neighbor has a completely different view on abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, all of those things, you still are both Americans. Neither one of you is necessarily more patriotic than the other. Neither loves their country any more than the other one does.

I was at a pharmaceutical conference in Dallas and bored out of my head. I'd split up from my missus and went downtown and had my kids' initials done, JLD, for Joseph, Luke and Daniel. Then I got back with my wife so I had her initials added during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival - after I'd waited a few years to see if the marriage would work!

It makes no sense to me that my gay friends cannot get married to each other because a certain slice of Christianity doesn't believe in gay marriage.

It is my conviction that marriage is such a good idea, only God could have thought of it.

Marriage ain't easy, but it's great most of the time.