Mike Newell Quotes

Children - if you think back really what it was like to be a child and what it was like to know other children - children lie all the time.

I became a man. Before that I was a little boy.

Children change you. They really do.

Adolescence, that swampy zone between safety and power, is best patrolled by adults armed with sense and mercy, not guns and a badge.

The children whom nobody leads by the hand are the children who know they are children.

It's about living in a world with rules, or a world without rules.

There's no handbook for parenting. So you walk a very fine line as a parent because you are civilizing these raw things. They will tip the coffee over and finger-paint on the table. At some point, you have to say, 'We're gonna have to clean that up because you don't paint with coffee on a table.'

You have to make the effort with children. You can't have them thinking that I reckon I'm special, otherwise they'll start thinking they're special. I want them to feel normal for as long as possible because God knows they'll reach an age when they'll be told they're not.

Kids have been let down by adults - we've tried to give them too much, we've tried not to impose discipline. We've tried to make their lives easier and, in doing so, we've taken something away from them. Kids like boundaries, they also like to be pushed, need to learn what failure is all about, need guidance.

We children learned responsibility automatically.

A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.

Power is something of which I am convinced there is no innocence this side of the womb.

You're only young once, but you can be immature forever.

All the things that most kids hated, I loved. I loved that things were asked of me and that, much to my surprise, I was able to do them. I loved the 10 o'clock bedtime. I loved the responsibility.

It's kind of fun being the cute, little one. In fact, I'm finding it hard to grow out of that.

Growing up, I was a kid pretending to be an adult.

Being a kid and growing up is such a cool part of life.

War and unrest appeal to me more than good bourgeois order. Brutality is respected, the people need wholesome fear. They want to fear someone. They want someone to frighten them and make them shudderingly submissive.

Having kids certainly gets me to ask the question, 'Who is the adult here, and who is the kid?'

I don't think I gave my mom too much trouble as a teenager.

Parents must lay down ground rules for their children to help them to grow up and to learn responsibility for their actions. They must learn to stand on their own two feet.

A child should be a child for as long as possible.

I do not raise brats!

I'm a big kid.