My mother was a very difficult woman to please. She was the sort of woman who thought that if I were praised I would get above myself.

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.

If you have a success you have it for the wrong reasons. If you become popular it is always because of the worst aspects of your work.

Mother Earth reintroduced me to my people.

Happiness is the ultimate purpose of our life and you find it in service.

I like to race, not to do laps alone.

A man who is not a fool can rid himself of every folly except vanity.

It might appear that nothing is happening, but that's actually when it really happens.

I couldn't walk up to a woman at a bar and say hello.

I have decided that we shall make and build and never give way.

If you're looking for something to be brave about, consider fine arts.

I was an actor in Japan and I'm a regular on about three shows. I'm grateful for all of it. My personal activities like that help Big Bang as a whole as well.