I was the most Australian child ever in the world, even though my home was in Africa.

When I say to a parent, "read to a child", I don't want it to sound like medicine. I want it to sound like chocolate.

The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading.

The fastest way to teach a child to read is to teach them to write.

If you are not a writer, you will not understand the difficulties of writing. If you are not a writer, you will not know the fears and hopes of the writers you teach.

Books don't harm kids; they arm them.

You're not lonely when you're teaching, you're not quiet, you're laughing most of the time, you're having a wonderful time interacting with young people. It's the best fun in the world.

I realized with grief that purposeless activities in language arts are probably the burial grounds of language development and that coffins can be found in most classrooms, including mine.

Babies have much higher levels of stress in childcare.

As everyone knows, nothing is sweeter than tiny baby fingers and chubby baby toes.

I don't go to church much anymore, but Methodist values still wind me up and send me ticking into my daily life.

Nurture a balanced perspective and don’t “sweat the small stuff.

Reason is the miner's lamp used in bringing up ore from the mind.

If I'd married someone in show business, there'd be too much competition.

Believe in yourself, step one. Believe in the order, step two. Believe in the teachings, step three.

Death is a mighty mediator. There all the flames of rage are extinguished, hatred is appeased, and angelic pity, like a weeping sister, bends with gentle and close embrace over the funeral urn.

You would think with all the genius and the brilliance of these times, we might find a higher purpose and a better use of mind.

I happen to write by hand. I don't even type.

We're kinda always writing, so it's like we're always thinking about what's next, so that'd be a yes. We're always constantly wanting to get onto the next thing or the new thing.

He who has ceased to learn has ceased to teach. He who no longer sows in the study will no more reap in the pulpit.

To be a friend takes time, and time is what nobody has. Therefore, real friends are rare.