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When people are smiling they are most receptive to almost anything you want to teach them.

Some of these kids just don't plain know how good they are: how smart and how much they have to say. You can tell them. You can shine that light on them, one human interaction at a time.

Kids tend to look up to sports figures and entertainers, probably more than they should, but I've tried to use that in a positive way.

Kids - in a really good way - can talk about their differences without the baggage that adults have.

I've seen a range of children's personalities, so it's easier to write about them without patronising them, I think.

Kids are no fools: they're very sophisticated, they don't miss a lot; they don't miss nuance.

Our children are counting on us to provide two things: consistency and structure. Children need parents who say what they mean, mean what they say, and do what they say they are going to do.

The best compliment to a child or a friend is the feeling you give him that he has been set free to make his own inquiries, to come to conclusions that are right for him, whether or not they coincide with your own.

You know how it's almost impossible for kids to not say what they think? That's me. I have to make the conscious effort to be situationally appropriate.

A big part of teaching is being emphatic. Maybe I'm right or wrong, but part of my approach was that when I said something, the kids understood exactly what I meant and what I wanted.