My Mother was a very wild Australian woman. When we were in Africa she could kill a snake with one blow from a crow bar, which she kept at the back door.

I have very little patience with children.

The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading. It isn’t achieved by the book alone, nor by the child alone, nor by the adult who’s reading aloud—it’s the relationship winding between all three, bringing them together in easy harmony.

Putting babies as young as two weeks into child care for the first year of their life, for 60 hours a week, will cause their brains damage.

Babies have much higher levels of stress in childcare.

I think sometimes we rush through countries, ticking off the attractions, but that's missing the point.