It's a mistake to think that we have to be lovely to be loved by human beings or by God

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.

Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else.

All life events are formative. All contribute to what we become, year by year, as we go on growing. As my friend the poet Kenneth Koch once said, You aren't just the age you are. You are all the ages you ever have been!

Children long to know that they are lovable. And there are ways that technology can help with that. But ultimately it's their relationships with their parents, their grandparents, their peers, and their teachers that help them to know that for sure. A child can learn the word "hug" and the letters h-u-g through a computer, but a computer can never give the child a hug.

I went into television because I hated it so, and I thought there's some way of using this fabulous instrument to nurture those who would watch and listen.

When our children see us expressing our emotions, they can learn that their own feelings are natural and permissible, can be expressed, and can be talked about. That's an important thing for our children to learn.