I have had an amazingly fortunate life. I'm a child from Yorkshire, which is sort of like Cleveland without the pretty bits.
Children and scientists share an outlook on life. 'If I do this, what will happen?' is both the motto of the child at play and the defining refrain of the physical scientist.
Your understanding of a place changes the longer you stay; you discover more, and your own life gets woven into the fabric of the community.
In retrospect, it seems like everything in my life led to me becoming a writer. I just didn't realise it at the time.
I'm an only child, and I think one of the sweet things about that is that my parents are really interested in every aspect of my life.
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.
I didn't want to be a former child actor for the rest of my life, although in some ways I suppose I am. I am going to be that.
The force that keeps the planets revolving around the sun would be glad to handle the circumstances of your life, if only you would ask him to.
Bending over backwards does not bring you the love and attention you crave, but having your own life, your own goals and a backbone will.
As a child, I loved being onstage. I loved singing, I loved the lights, I loved the adrenaline. I even loved learning lines. I was completely obsessive.
That image of the countryside being a threatening place still exists. People continue to resist the challenge of learning about aspects of life they don't understand.
I do love nature, but I don't suppose I'd spent more time in zoos as a child than anyone else!
My mom had me when she was 16, and I was an only child, which is probably why I received a lot of love and didn't miss that my father wasn't around.
The compelled mother loves her child as the caged bird sings. The song does not justify the cage nor the love the enforcement.
Parents are supposed to give the child back to herself with love. If they've got duct tape over their eyes because of narcissism, it doesn't happen.
I have always loved story - I escaped within it as a child, I read every day, I love figuring out the complex layers of an author's work.
Education is the master key to greatness; without it, a child would be faced with the darkness of a future that's full of uncertainties.
I set our house on fire when I was a little child playing with lighters. Boy, did I burn the place down!
What happens when you're a child professional is that you have to be, well, professional. You're taught not to have tantrums, to always people-please.
I want to know why I read as a child with such a frantic appetite, why I sucked the words off the page with such an edge of desperation.
All of my judges will want to welcome every child into the world, give them a place at the table.
