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I think that we are all much closer to our childhood selves than we often think, so when we read about childhood, it can surprise us how immediate or moving it is, when perhaps those feelings are just there, waiting to be accessed all the time.

We're naturally programmed to endure a muddle of emotions as we leave childhood behind.

Most of us have unhealthy thoughts and emotions that have either developed as a result of trauma or hardships in their childhood, or the way they were raised.

As kids, our experiences shape our opinions of ourselves and the world around us, and that's who we become as adults.

Your memories from your early childhood seem to have such purchase on your emotions. They are so concrete.

There's slowly been a kind of shift in how we think about childhood. It's like childhood almost extends to 20 or 22 even after the end of college. When I was growing up, there was this expectation that you were on your own now.

A stable and nurturing childhood is essential for the healthy psycho-emotional and spiritual development of a human being. While we may understand what is supposed to happen to us physically, we must begin to better understand what happens to children mentally, emotionally and spiritually as a result of the families into which they are born.

Most childhoods are full of anxiety, but that tends to get smoothed over, so you have a sense of nostalgia.

Every childhood has its talismans, the sacred objects that look innocuous enough to the outside world, but that trigger an onslaught of vivid memories when the grown child confronts them.

I think because I'm not a parent, my most immediate connection to childhood is my memory of my own childhood.