Family

My wife is the luckiest thing that ever happened to me—not The Big Boss.

“Linda, thanks for the day when, at the University of Washington, Bruce Lee had the honor to meet you.” A quality human being in her own right; giving, loving, stalwart, understanding this animal, Bruce Lee. My companion in our separate but intertwined pathways of growth. A definite enricher of my life. The woman I love and—fortunately for me—my wife.

When we decided to get married, we married. Just like that. We just suddenly decided, This is it. So why have an engagement? I remember going over to Linda’s house to tell her parents that we wanted to marry. They weren’t too happy at first, because they thought I was going to carry her away, across the Pacific. And, to tell you the truth, that was what we’d planned to do—go back to Hong Kong. Linda’s mother and father were a little worried, especially because of the situation in Vietnam and Red China. But they were pretty nice about the whole thing... I was only interested in getting married.

No—language was never a problem between Linda and me! We could always make each other understand.

Oh, sure, we compromise sometimes and eat American food. Like, for instance, would you believe steak and fried rice?

Linda and I aren’t one and one. We are two halves that make a whole—two halves fitted together are more efficient than either half would ever be alone!

You have to apply yourself to be a family.

Marriage is a friendship, a partnership based solidly upon ordinary, everyday occurrences. Marriage is breakfast in the morning, work during the day—the husband at his work, the wife at hers—dinner at night and quiet evenings together talking, reading or watching television.

When Linda was pregnant the first time I was quite confident that it was going to be a boy. In fact, we only chose a boy’s name for the unborn baby. We didn’t even bother thinking of a girl’s name. And our first child was a blond, gray-eyed Chinaman—maybe the only one around: Brandon Bruce Lee.

Through all my children’s education will run the Confucianist philosophy that the highest standards of conduct consist of treating others as you wish to be treated, plus loyalty, intelligence, and the fullest development of the individual in the five chief relationships of life: government and those who are governed, parent and child, elder and younger sibling, husband and wife, and friend and friend. Equipped in that way, I don’t think they can go far wrong.

Brandon takes after me. He is full of energy, always running around and never sitting still for a minute.

The second time I had decided it was going to be a girl, so we only chose a girls name—and we had Shannon.

I will teach my children that nothing is superior in every respect. The Occidental education is excellent in some ways, the Oriental in others. You will say, “This finger is better for one purpose; this finger is better for another.” But the entire hand is better for all purposes.

Marriage is caring for children, watching over them in sickness, training them in the way they must go, sharing worry about them and pride in them.

I will play ... and joke with my [children], but business is business. When the subject is a serious one, you don’t go around trying to keep from hurting feelings. You say what must be said and set the rules which must be set without worrying about whether [they] like it or not.

I don’t know where he’s going—but he’s on his way.

I will teach Brandon that each man binds himself—the fetters are ignorance, laziness, preoccupation with self and fear. He must liberate himself while accepting the fact that we are of this world, so that “In summer we sweat; in winter we shiver.”

In daily living, one must follow the course of the barrier. To try to assail it will only destroy the instrument. And no matter what some people may say, barriers are not the experience of any one person, or any one group. They are the universal experience... To refuse to be cast down, that is the lesson. Walk on and see a new view. Walk on and see the birds fly. Walk on and leave behind all things that would dam up the inlet—or clog the outlet—of experience.

Even though I, Bruce Lee, may die someday without fulfilling all of my ambitions, I feel no sorrow. I did what I wanted to do. What I’ve done, I’ve done with sincerity and to the best of my ability. You can’t expect much more from life.