"I was such a smart kid, I should have figured out that the only way to really get my parents' attention was to disappoint them or fail. But by the time I finally realized that, succeeding was already a habit too ingrained to break."

Childhood, Achievement, Attention, Parenting, Success

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"I was such a smart kid, I should have figured out that the only way to really get my parents' attention was to disappoint them or fail. But by the time I finally realized that, succeeding was already a habit too ingrained to break."

Exlpore more Childhood quotes

"I was thinking as small children think, as if my thoughts or wishes had the power to reverse the narrative, change the outcome."

Joan Didion, American Author

Childhood, Innocence, Reflection, Memory, Truth

"And on some level it walways felt like kids paying at being grown."

John Green, American Author

Childhood, Growth, Innocence, Maturity

"While you're governing the colony and I'm writing political philosophy, They'll never guess that in the darkness of night we sneak into each other's room and play checkers and have pillow fights."

Orson Scott Card, American Writer

Childhood, Play, Secrets, Friendship

"I had a wonderful childhood, but I was a wanderer from year one."

Maureen Forrester, Canadian Musician

Childhood,

"Books are all very well in their way, and we love them at Sagamore Hill; but children are better than books."

Theodore Roosevelt, American President

Childhood, Children, Books, Learning, Happiness

"Children are not a zoo of entertainingly exotic creatures, but an array of mirrors in which the human predicament leaps out at us."

John Updike, American Novelist

Childhood, Children, Reflection, Humanity, Understanding

"I was born in Somerville, but I don't remember very much about it because we moved from there to Arlington when I was five years old, and it was in Arlington that I spent most of my childhood."

Alan Hovhaness, American Composer

Childhood, Old, Years

"When I first started teaching at Berkeley in 1958, I could not announce that I was gay to anybody, though probably quite a few of my fellow teachers knew."

Thom Gunn, British Poet

Childhood, First, Gay, Teachers, Teaching

"In the midst of the vagaries of life, they provide us a trip to the land of goodness and fairies, of imaginations and possibilities.A childhood that wasn't spent watching cartoons or reading comic strips, no wonder, seems too dull to imagine."

Sanhita Baruah, Indian Writer

Childhood, Imagination, Story, Innocence

"Luis is right there. I point to the corner of the yard, where my little brother is the centre of attention doing imitations of barnyard animals. I have yet to inform him that talent isn't as much of a chick magnet when you get into junior high."

Simone Elkeles, American Author

Childhood, Innocence, Talent, Social

Explore more quotes by Sarah Dessen

"Sure, it sucked to be lost, but I'd long ago realized I preferred it to depending on anyone else to get me where I needed to go. That was the thing about being alone, in theory or in principle. Whatever happened- good, bad, or anywhere in between- it was always, if nothing else, all your own."

Freedom

"So you're always honest," I said."Aren't you?""No," I told him. "I'm not.""Well, that's good to know, I guess.""I'm not saying I'm a liar," I told him. He raised his eyebrows. "That's not how I meant it, anyways.""How'd you mean it, then?""I just...I don't always say what I feel.""Why not?""Because the truth sometimes hurts," I said."Yeah," he said. "So do lies, though."

Communication

"It was great. Freedom even the imagined kind always is."

Freedom

"It wasn't about being happy or unhappy. I just didn't want to be me anymore."

Mental Health

"You couldn't just pick and choose at will when someone depended on you, or loved you. It wasn't like a light switch, easy to turn on or off. If you were in, you were in. Out, you were out."

Relationship

"It took a lot of work to be perfect. If you didn't want to break a sweat, there was no point in even bothering."

Discipline

"It was amazing how you could get so far from where you'd planned, and yet find it was exactly were you needed to be."

Life

"But as long as something is never even started, you never have to worry about it ending. It has endless potential."

Potential

"Silence is so freaking loud."

Silence

"Your mother won a special reward," she told me, "because everyone had a head in her pictures. We all applauded."

Recognition