From the foreword by Quentin Tarantino:

"One of the reasons Michael's work has such meaning for me is he's writing about feelings and emotions that it seems at times the last few generations have become blind to. Some of Michael's work is about family remembrances. A moment he saw his mother wrap her arms around his father's waist, or how his sister looked in one dress in particular. Some of them are thought jazz. Some are the best recordings of the gypsy life of a movie actor I've ever read. Michael stuck on some location, on some crappy movie, bored out of his mind with too much time on his hands and not enough per diem is Michael at his funniest. But for me, the real journey that Michael the writer is exploring is what it means to be a man in a world where the notions of manhood that some of us grew up with are barely remembered. But then if everybody embarked on the hero's journey, everybody would be a hero, wouldn't they?"

Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts & Poemsexplores not only Madsen's remarkable life and experiences in and out of Hollywood, but also his familial influences that have participated in crafting and shaping him, including thoughts on his father; his mother and the rumor that he was born without a left hand; ghosts, whiskey, and payback; Robert Mitchum, James Cagney, and "sensitive sons of bitches"; the mentality of actors and growing up to be a man; his first audition; drunken behavior; epic drinkers; and much, much more.