His Rules for Life...Fact-Checked

On raising a child...

"To be a successful father . . . there's one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don't look at it for the first 2 years."

FALSE
"When it comes to fatherhood, the author of A Farewell to Arms also must have said farewell to logic. Infants and toddlers with involved fathers display better cognitive and motor development, are better problem solvers, are better adapted to their peers, and are more sociable than those without involved fathers. Hemingway was a better writer than a rearer." -- Roland Warren, president of the National Fatherhood Initiative

On fear...

"Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination."

TRUE
Panic or fear is a fight-or-flight response. It is the here and now. It is hard to control. But when it comes to anxiety, higher-level thinking comes into play. We all have fear and anxiety. Some people avoid things that make them anxious, others don't. A brave man will be able to stop his anxious brain from coming up with possible negative outcomes. The coward can't, or doesn't, shut his down." -- Peter J. Norton, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and director of the Anxiety Disorder Clinic at the University of Houston

On humor...

"A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book."

TRUE
"Charlie Chaplin is a great example of a guy who came from a very painful background and was extremely funny. Many people who have gone to a comic career are working from a place of pain or angst. Humor is a great deflector and coping mechanism. Plus, flaws resonate with an audience. Like the news, they thrive on the bad." -- Andrew Alexander, executive producer, The Second City

On booze...

"When you work hard all day with your head and . . . must work again the next day, what else can change your ideas and make them run on a different plane like whiskey? . . . Modern life, too, is often a mechanical oppression and liquor is the only mechanical relief."

FALSE
"Alcohol does affect the part of the brain that controls executive functioning, turning off the frontal cortex. You will think more simply. However, alcohol is unpredictable. People can get more depressed and upset when they drink, rather than less upset. That mechanical oppression was Hemingway's daily grind, and he used alcohol as a tool to ease that grind. But ultimately, he shot himself in the head." -- Robert Swift, M.D., Ph.D., of the Brown University Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies