No one ever told me I was pretty when I was a little girl. All little girls should be told they're pretty, even if they aren't.
One time, when he was a child, in a power-failure, his mother had found and lit a last candle and there had been a brief hour of rediscovery, of such illumination that space lost its vast dimensions and drew comfortably around them, and they, mother and son, alone, transformed, hoping that the power might not come on again too soon....
A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.
Important thing is not the me that's lying here, but the me that's sitting on the edge of the bed looking back at me, and the me that's downstairs cooking supper, or out in the garage under the car, or in the library reading. All the new parts, they count. I'm not really dying today. No person ever died that had a family. I'll be around a long time. A thousand years from now a whole township of my offspring will be biting sour apples in the gumwood shade. That's my answer to anyone asks big questions!
...Jack!
When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness’ sake.
But don’t make a production of it.
Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults, and evasion simply muddles ‘em.
Isn't a kid alive who doesn't dream about rewarding her folks, or punishing them.
The reason why grownups and kids fight is because they belong to separate races. Look at them, different from us. Look at us, different from them.