Cloud 9 Family Quotes

When Clive has to confront the fact that Edward (once again) has been caught playing with his sister's doll, Clive decides to use a tried and true technique of all overbearing fathers—live in complete denial. So instead of acknowledging his son's love for the doll, Clive just talks as if Edward was protecting the doll for his sister, and he calls Edward manly for doing so. You can tell that not even Clive buys his own lie, though, which is why he follows by saying, "We'll say no more about it. "

When Clive expresses his admiration for Harry's work as an explorer, Harry says that it's he who truly admires Clive. He says this because he believes that the true work of the British Empire isn't to conquer new corners, but to make everyone fit the Western ideal of the nuclear family.

When it comes time to justify why he would ever go through the hassle of living with a woman, Clive cites "the necessity of reproduction." In other words, the guy ain't exactly romantic about his marriage. He just sees it as a means to an end. And that end is the spreading of the white nuclear family as an ideal.