Actually, that's one of the things I was thinking about writing a story about me, loosely based or autobiographical. I just don't want to be like some people that are in their twenties and writing autobiographies.
Educators shouldn't be afraid of cliches. You know why? Because kids don't know most of them! They're a new audience. And they're inspired by cliches.
Once, when I was about eight, my mum handed me a sandwich, and I remarked: 'What are those weird things on your hands?' I was referring to the visible pores, which were such a contrast to my own alabaster-smooth skin. My mum looked mortified, while my grandma laughed and said: 'They're nothing - look at mine!'
I grew up as a Democrat in a very strong Democratic family, but I will tell you that the Democratic Party that exists in this country is not the Democratic Party I grew up around.
Each generation confronts new problems, encounters new facts, and tells our history somewhat differently.
Bill Clinton, Mr. Bob Dole, You too old to understand tha way tha game is told.
Crack mothers, crack babies and AIDS patients Youngbloods can't spell, but they could rock you in PlayStation.
The old begin to complain of the conduct of the young when they themselves are no longer able to set a bad example.
We need a national service that throws us all together, the urban with the rural, the Fox News types with the MSNBC crowd. That way, Americans can get to know Americans and learn - as previous generations did - that we are all Americans.
It's so funny because when you're working with an acquaintance or someone else, you're being more polite. I find that I'm a little bit more of a brat when I'm in the studio with my dad, so I feel bad.
Both grandfathers fought in different wars. My mother's father fought in World War II, and then my father's father fought in Korea. And they're both these country boys, one from rural Tennessee and one from rural Louisiana - and they never went back home.
I read an article about 60 being the new 30 the other week, and I think it's very true. Our generation has not done what previous generations did and just got old and sat in a corner.
My father was very strong. I don't agree with a lot of the ways he brought me up. I don't agree with a lot of his values, but he did have a lot of integrity, and if he told us not to do something, he didn't do it either.
I did not, like my children and people today, grow up with television as part of my life.
Every generation lives with illusions.
My parents grew up in a village where they didn't even have running water. They are first generation immigrants who are proof that arranged marriages can work, although I wouldn't want one.
But I never, never thought of the ministry nor did - of course, television when I was growing up, there was no television. So I didn't know anything about it.
I am, as it happens, a baby boomer, but not one who feels any broad-gauge nostalgia for the '60s and '70s. My attitude resembles that of my parents, who were born in the '20s and lived through the Great Depression and World War II.
My father was a scientist, and I grew up in his laboratory. Maybe I am like him, but he is not like me.
My grandmother lived with us for a short time while I was a child. Old people tend to be slightly more eccentric - they can behave the way they want.
Like lots of baby boomers, I was brought up on archaic anthropomorphism. Upstanding Christian dogs. Rabbits with family values. Because the ancient texts and pictures were sacred - Potter, Milne and the rest. Even concerned parents who knew Freud and Jung never saw the contradictions in feeding us on them.
Although my parents both liked her, they just didn't approve of a same-sex relationship. Nowadays, people say that you must let children be what they are, but when I was growing up, the parents defined the child - and my parents had a definite vision of how they wanted me to be.
Surely it isn't illegal here to complain about young people these days? How cruel. I had thought it a basic part of human nature, one of the few universally practiced human customs.
The wisdom of one generation will be folly in the next.
My mother is who she is. I've become who I am. At some point I realized those two just didn't go together.
