You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.

The book that convinced me I wanted to be a writer was ‚Crime and Punishment‘. I put the thing down after reading it in a fever over two or three days… I said, ‚If this is what a book can be, then that is what I want to do.‘

The best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don’t want them to become politicians in the process.

The Gates Foundation has learned that two questions can predict how much kids learn: ‚Does your teacher use class time well?‘ and, ‚When you’re confused, does your teacher help you get straightened out?‘

Education is important because it prepares you for life.

My mother was a powerful influence. She made me toe the line. If I didn’t have a perfect report card, she showed her disappointment.

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!

Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.

No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.

I went to a public school through sixth grade, and being good at tests wasn’t cool.

When I was 8 years old, I saw ‚Raiders of the Lost Ark‘ in Charlotte, North Carolina. I walked out of there and was so inspired. I loved the movie, and I knew I wanted to be that guy.

The loss of a child is my greatest nightmare.

Our schools and colleges are turning out people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do.

Modern cynics and skeptics… see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.

Somewhere it is written that parents who are critical of other people’s children and publicly admit they can do better are asking for it.

When schools flourish, all flourishes.

Every time I have to look up a word in the dictionary, I’m delighted.

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

I had this child, and it destroyed my family.

We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be, in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40 – and half the things he knows at 40 hadn’t been discovered when he was 20?

The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.

Fortunately, we have help from the media. I have to say this: I’m very grateful for the support and kindness that we’ve gotten. People have respected their privacy and in that way, I think, you know, no matter what people may feel about my husband’s policies or what have you, they care about children and that’s been good to see.

In truth, I did enjoy the benefits of a Harvard connection.

I’ve always been surrounded by many great people and professors, but my family, especially my mom who was a teacher, was the person who encouraged me to study and pushed me to continue. When we’re young, we don’t understand why our parents bug us so much with school and doing homework, but it’s a blessing to have that support at home.

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.

The vibe on ‚Starboy‘ comes from that hip-hop culture of braggadocio, from Wu-Tang and 50 Cent, the kind of music I listened to as a kid.

Who in their infinite wisdom decreed that Little League uniforms be white? Certainly not a mother.

My father… removed from Kentucky to… Indiana, in my eighth year… It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up… Of course when I came of age, I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher… but that was all.

If you give a person a fish, they’ll fish for a day. But if you train a person to fish, they’ll fish for a lifetime.

I mean, what would I be doing if I couldn’t write? But that fortunately hasn’t proved to be the case and I can read any day. I still read a lot, and I can write any day, but much more slowly and fewer words.

When we talk about mortality, we are talking about our children.

I had wanted a tape recorder since I was tiny. I thought it was a magic thing. I never got one until just before I went to art school.

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

Little children are still the symbol of the eternal marriage between love and duty.

We are more thoroughly an enlightened people, with respect to our political interests, than perhaps any other under heaven. Every man among us reads, and is so easy in his circumstances as to have leisure for conversations of improvement and for acquiring information.

Yes, we’ve still got more work to do. More work to do for every American still in need of a good job or a raise, paid leave or a decent retirement; for every child who needs a sturdier ladder out of poverty or a world-class education; for everyone who has not yet felt the progress of these past seven and a half years.

To be a successful father… there’s one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don’t look at it for the first two years.

I always wanted to be a father and thought it would be great, but it just took the right woman and the right time to make it all happen.

See, people are watching you. Especially your children. They’re taking in every single thing you do. They are like video cameras with legs. And they are always in the record mode. They learn more from what you do than from what you say.

Plumbers can be masters, the guy who did my patio is a master, some people are masters at raising really great children.

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.

Unemployment rates among Americans who never went to college are about double that of those who have a postsecondary education.

The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.

It’s true that I’ve never had a burning desire to rebel against my parents.

In terms of my involvement in ‚don’t ask, don’t tell‘ and marriage equality and anti-bullying and social emotional learning in schools – these are all things that arise out of my relationship with the world and with my fans.

A self-taught man usually has a poor teacher and a worse student.

When you work with kids, especially, you want to be ready to turn the camera on at a moment’s notice.

My greatest blessing has been the birth of my son. My next greatest blessing has been my ability to turn people into children of mine.

This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.

I grew up reading science fiction.

The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that.

In the real world, children love me.

Kids end up seeing my movies anyway but some of the mothers get mad at me so I figured I’d make one that I can’t get yelled at for.

For me, education has never been simply a policy issue – it’s personal. Neither of my parents and hardly anyone in the neighborhood where I grew up went to college. But thanks to a lot of hard work and plenty of financial aid, I had the opportunity to attend some of the finest universities in this country.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

Since the child knew his parents would give in, he tried the same trick again and again.

I want my kids to see me as Dad, for God’s sake, not a television personality.

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

One of my mentors schooled me on branding before it was a cliche term in the game.