Fannie Flagg Quotes

I worry about kids today not having time to build a tree house or ride a bike or go fishing. I worry that life is getting faster and faster.

In my youth, I spent my time investigating insects.

I'm a dirty kid, I like to be outside, I like to run about, I like to get messy. So I spent a lot of time outside as a kid, skating and just being a disaster.

One of the first houses we lived in was like out of a fairy story. We had a stream that ran through our garden, and we played with the ducks - we locked them in my mum's office, and they pooed everywhere. It was crazy, picking blackberries and mushrooms, rabbits running through your legs.

I grew up like Huck Finn, always outdoors, exploring, collecting frogs - there was space everywhere. I want my kids to experience that too. I love being outside.

I was the feral, mud-bathing, tree-climbing variety of child. Why would I want to read about pirates when I could build a raft and terrorise sheep along the riverbanks?

I guess I was a bit of a tomboy. I liked to catch frogs in the ditch, play soccer with my brother's friends and play video games.

I remember being fascinated by ants and wasps and other bugs when I was a kid. I'd set out a Coke can and stand back 20 feet and use my telescope to watch wasps land on it.

I was a very physical child... I was a tree-climber; I was a tomboy.

I ran around with the other youngsters, hunting, fishing and raising tadpoles and all the rest.

I loved being outside. We'd hold lightning bugs in our fingers and pretend they were diamond rings.

I had a lovely, feral, free childhood - out and then come back when you're hungry or it gets too dark. I feel slightly cruel that I'm not offering my children the same.

We used to play a lot outdoors, not in leagues, but just in our spare time.

There's nothing better for kids than a bucket and shovel at the beach. I grew up across the marsh from The Citadel. We loved buying chicken necks at the Piggly Wiggly, tying them to a string on a stick and catching blue crabs.

Of all bugs, growing up I just loved the pill bugs. They roll up, you play with them, you wait for them to open up, and then when you touch them they roll up again. I just love that.

As a kid, I was just led out in the morning to go spend my day with my friends and just run in the woods. And I'd only come home to eat or when I was thirsty.

I'm very close in age to my older brother, and we had a field at the end of the road where we could run around, climb trees, play football.

I was a very spastic kid who loved to see how high he could climb a tree. That's just the way I've always been.

When we were kids, our parents would let us play outside all day, and there was a horse-drawn milk wagon that could become anything in my mind, like a spaceship or something.

I was so intrigued by insects and things that crawled or flew - I could spend hours by myself in a vacant lot.

Even for people who live in the country, there is a trepidation now about going outside to play. But it never occurred to us to be fearful when we were young.

I was very into animals and nature, and really obsessed with cats and monkeys. I used to play in the woods, wander off into the woods for hours. I'd bring a clipboard and think that I was doing some work out there, following the trails of raccoons or collecting bird feathers.

What joy and adventure the youngsters of today are missing as they sit indoors mucking about with computer games and videos!

When I was a kid, mostly I played in a ditch that didn't have much water in it. It was for drainage purposes. There was not a lot trouble to get into in that ditch. It was ditch activities like catching crawdads and minnows.

People ask what message I have for kids, and it's simple: Just go outside.