We know the parental support community support makes a difference. It's not just the metrics of testing and putting pressure on the schools and on the teachers.

None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody - a parent a teacher an Ivy League crony or a few nuns - bent down and helped us pick up our boots.

Sympathy is something that shouldn't be bestowed upon the Yankees. Apparently it angers them.

Look if you ask a child 'Would you rather have a fulfilled mother or a stay-at-home Sylvia Plath ' they'll pick Sylvia Plath every time. But I think it's really important that children don't feel their parents' emotional lives depend on their success.

I feel lucky because I was a nerd which I talk about in the book but I had academic success so through that because that's what my parents put a great deal of value on I had a great childhood because I sort of fulfilled the expectations of being good at school.

Every success story has a parent who says 'over my dead body.' Every success story has an old person who walks up to you and says when you're acting the fool 'you know I worry about you sometimes.'

I had a lot of encouragement and tolerance from my parents but I also have many friends who didn't get that from their parents and in a way they have more strength from spending years where nobody believed in them.

The water cooler conversation in every job I've had is sports it's what did you do this weekend it's 'How are your parents doing?'

If I had a personal wish for the new ideas in this new book it would be that every parent every counselor every teacher every professor every sports coach that deals with young people would understand the three circle concept.

I hate the cliche of 'just have fun ' but what I've seen in today's sports especially with parents is they put so much pressure on the kids.

Part of my growing up was always trying to make my parents proud and always trying to keep them happy. I think part of what held them together was my involvement in sports.

As a result of Title IX and a new generation of parents who want their daughters to have the opportunities they never had women's sports have arrived.

I think it is that parents just don't kick their kids out the door as much as they used to. I think the demise of sandlot sports has had a lot to do with it.

I have my parents to thank for that they raised me to be active and play all sports. They taught me the importance of staying healthy being focused and setting goals in whatever I do.

My parents couldn't handle my energy so they enrolled me in every sport the school was offering. I didn't resent it because I loved sports and picked them up easily.

Modernity the child of the Enlightenment failed when it became apparent that the good society cannot be achieved by unaided reason.

I would argue that we have a generation of young people particularly minorities who are no longer putting up with the kinds of things their parents put up with. They're much more self-confident. It's no longer acceptable to make fun of people because of race or sex. But it has always been present in American society.

Without intervention today the cost of care for adults with autism will be significantly greater and the burden will no longer lie with the parents but on our entire society.

I've covered a lot of ground geographically and emotionally and for years I lost my connection with my family. But the best comfort you can have whether you are on the phone or sitting there in the living room with them is with your parents and to me family has always meant protection. When you smile you get a smile back unconditionally.

Children learn to smile from their parents.

1988 I also received from the city of Vienna the cross of honour for art and science. These titles and the various honors mean a great deal to me most of all for the reason that they would mean a great deal to my parents too.

My parents divorced when I was born and my mother is a political science professor like a feminist Mormon which is sort of an oxymoron.

For whatever reason I didn't succumb to the stereotype that science wasn't for girls. I got encouragement from my parents. I never ran into a teacher or a counselor who told me that science was for boys. A lot of my friends did.

The most watched programme on the BBC after the news is probably 'Doctor Who.' What has happened is that science fiction has been subsumed into modern literature. There are grandparents out there who speak Klingon who are quite capable of holding down a job. No one would think twice now about a parallel universe.