Quotes About Childhood

We think the purpose of a child is to grow up because it does grow up. But its purpose is to play, to enjoy itself, to be a child. If we merely look to the end of the process, the purpose of life is death

When I first started acting I was about nine years old. I had never been to audition in my life and my agent sent me out. It was just a commercial for 'Harry Potter.' That was the first thing I ever went out for and I got the 'Harry Potter' commercial which was really cool, but I didn't play Harry Potter.

Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law,Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw:Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,A little louder, but as empty quite:Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,And beads and prayer books are the toys of age!Pleas'd with this bauble still, as that before;Till tir'd he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.

What will a child learn sooner than a song?

My mom would put me in these preppy little suits and slick my hair to the side. I have these baby pictures of me where I'm this little preppy kid with a sweater tied around my neck.

What is it with men and women and the constant battle over the central heating? Growing up, I can remember how every winter my dad turned into Chief Inspector Stevens of the Heating Police, constantly policing the thermostat and turning down the dial a click. Only for him to go to work and Mum to turn it back up two notches. Back and forth it went for my entire childhood.

Scarlett laughed aloud without knowing it. It was a child's laughter, free and unconsidered, expressing pure joyful surprise. "Oh, look!" she said. "Oh, look!" She was so enraptured that she was unaware of Rhett's eyes watching her, instead of the horses.

In extreme cases, the "press for success" can reach a fever pitch, such that the child's present is essentially mortgaged to the future. Activities that might bring meaning or enjoyment are sacrificed in a ceaseless effort to prepare for Harvard.

Some parents withdraw their love by simply refusing to respond to a child—that is, by making a point of ignoring him. They may not say it out loud, but the message they're sending is pretty clear: "If you do things I don't like, I won't pay any attention to you. I'll pretend you're not even here. If you want me to acknowledge you again, you'd better obey me.

Nothing is more important to us when we're young than how our parents feel about us. Uncertainty about that, or terror about being abandoned, can leave its mark even after we're grown.

When held up to the window pane, What fixed my baby stare? The glory of the glittering rain, And newness everywhere.

When I was seven, that would be in the year 458, there came the first sudden upset of my life of sudden upsets.

The first several years of my life were used to upload incredible amounts of fear, and I just became afraid of everything. I was afraid of my parents, afraid of my classmates, afraid of the streets of Washington, D.C. I would flinch at every gesture.

Some of my first memories are waiting for my father to finish his day at work in the University of Washington library and come out and jump in the car with my mom and myself, and we'd be sitting there reading books, and then we'd go home.

I was born in Washington, D.C., and I was raised in Milwaukee.

Slow, skinny, and an utter countryside coward: I lived in dread of nettles, spiders, and the very sound of a wasp. As a victim, I was beneath the dignity of the bullies in my year but fair game to the ones in the year below.

In my own case, my folks didn't actually object to comics, as many parents did, but they pretty much felt the things were a waste of time.

Any acceleration constitutes progress, Miss Glory. Nature had no understanding of the modern rate of work. From a technical standpoint the whole of childhood is pure nonsense. Simply wasted time. An untenable waste of time.

When I was eight, an uncle, great uncle, gave a violin to me, and my father took me off to have lessons. After about six weeks, the violin teacher told my father he was wasting his money, wasting his time, and wasting my time, and it's one of my big regrets.

I have a fascination for cartoons. No matter how many times 'Tom and Jerry' fall, you never complain, and watch it again.

I couldn't watch 'Harry Potter,' 'Lord of the Rings,' 'House'... I was like strictly a 'SpongeBob,' Disney Channel, Nickelodeon kinda guy.

Pop music means everything to me. I've been listening to pop since I was kid, running home from school to watch Britney Spears and Spice Girls and Christina Aguilera music videos, and it felt like it was a world to escape to for me personally.

'Matilda' was my favorite movie to film and my favorite to watch, as well.

When you're a kid, you lay in the grass and watch the clouds going over, and you literally don't have a thought in your mind. It's purely meditation, and we lose that.