Anna Quindlen

Children should have enough freedom to be themselves - once they've learned the rules. ”

All parents should be aware that when they mock or curse gay people, they may be mocking or cursing their own child. ”

When children are small, parents should run their lives and not the other way around. ”

Even as we enumerate their shortcomings, the rigor of raising children ourselves makes clear to us our mothers' incredible strength. We fear both. If they are not strong, who will protect us? If they are not imperfect, how can we equal them? ”

In the family sandwich, the older people and the younger ones can recognize one another as the bread. Those in the middle are, for a time, the meat. ”

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself. ”

Raising a child is a little like Picasso's work; in the beginning he did very conventional representational things. Cubism came after he had the rules down pat. ”

The future is built on brains, not prom court, as most people can tell you after attending their high school reunion. But you'd never know it by talking to kids or listening to the messages they get from the culture and even from their schools. ”