I don't know why some people have children at all if they know that they can only take a few weeks off work.

I think that my favourite animal is a baby possum, or a joey. The face of a really little joey is so divine - so, so gorgeous.

I have very little patience with children.

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

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.

If we are always reading aloud something that is more difficult than children can read themselves then when they come to that book later, or books like that, they will be able to read them - which is why even a fifth grade teacher, even a tenth grade teacher, should still be reading to children aloud. There is always something that is too intractable for kids to read on their own.