I think the depth, what children can handle and what they're interested in, is much deeper than I think what people assume. I think it's why sometimes we make things too simple for them.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I know it can be difficult for parents, but I really do believe that kids need to play the predominant role in the choices that go into their own space.
Children take in more information than we'd like to believe.
I think it's hard to write about children and to have an idea of innocence.
Life isn't so complicated for children. They have more time to think about the really important things. That's why I occasionally moralise in my children's books in a way I wouldn't dare when writing for adults.
Children are far more interesting to work with than grownups. They're incredibly honest. They'll tell you exactly what they think.
Children have such vibrant minds. They need to play. They need to be creative. They need to imagine. It's so important for their sense of self discovery. And it helps them learn problem-solving.
Children, I always think, are just putting on a performance of being naive and not understanding anything. I have worked with children in films, and they're treated as adults and they just drop the pretense of being children.
It's difficult to keep that perspective, I think, as a parent: to know your boundaries as to what's good parenting or just projecting your own expectations on your kids. That's the hardest.
There's something in this country that is so opposed to understanding the complexity of children.
One seeks to equip the child with deeper, more gripping, and subtler ways of knowing the world and himself.