My grandma used to plant tomato seedlings in tin cans from tomato sauce & puree & crushed tomatoes she got from the Italian restaurant by her house, but she always soaked the labels off first. I don't want them to be anxious about the future, she said. It's not healthy.

The most important thing you leave behind is the stuff that turns into treasures when children find it

We went to a church that had missionaries who'd come back once a year from Fiji & give talks. I remember one of them saying it was very hard work telling people they were going to lose their everlasting souls if they didn't shape up. I pictured people sitting on the beach listening to this sweaty man all dressed in black telling them they were going to burn in hell & them thinking this was good fun, these scary stories this guy was telling them & afterwards, they'd all go home & eat mango & fish & they'd play Monopoly & laugh & laugh & they'd go to bed & wake up the next day & do it all again.

Time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like ordinary life.

If you're talking to a child, you're going, 'This is the wonder of science and here's why I'm so fascinated by it.'

Opening a door to the mysteries, hoping to shed a little dark on all the stuff we think we know.

There are lives I can imagine without children but none of them have the same laughter & noise.