Writing a picture book is like writing 'War and Peace' in Haiku.

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.

Only through a steady mind and constant faith can your desires manifest.

The measure of wealth is the ability to afford ones' mistakes.

When I'm in the car, I want the only one shouting to be me.

In this case, I realize that, unlike when I was 22 years old, I realize now that football will not go on forever, it is a small part of your life.

I have very eclectic taste in music, but when it comes to going to concerts, I like going to rock concerts.

I've been watching American baseball on television for a long time, but it was only in recent years that, realistically, I've been thinking about playing here.

I'll tell you what I hate - bands like My Chemical Romance.

If I could wake all of the women of Asia, India could be won in a day.

Tell the truth or trump-but get the trick.

Diplomacy is much like the "lovemaking of elephants", which is accompanied with a lot of bellowing and other sound effects, but no one can be sure of the consequences for at least the next two years