“Optimism - even, and perhaps especially in the face of difficulty - ha...” — Pamela Druckerman Quote

Optimism - even, and perhaps especially in the face of difficulty - has long been an American hallmark.

When I tell French parents that I know lots of American kids who will eat only pasta or only white rice, they can't believe it. I mean, they can understand how the kid left to his own devices might do that, but they can't imagine that parents would allow that to happen.

Remember that the problem with hyper-parenting isn't that it's bad for children; it's that it's bad for parents.

In the Nineties, there was all this new research into brain development, with evidence saying poor kids fall behind in school because no one is talking to them at home, no one is reading to them. And middle-class parents seized on this research.

And I really do think that the difficulty of research makes it more real to you than punching a thing to find out how many men were killed at this particular action.

That strong mentality of turning fear into power, turning difficulty into something good, turning negatives into positives, that is something that comes from my father.

My approach to gymnastics in Beijing was heavily based on the amount of difficulty I could do.

The fundamental difficulty in myothermic observations is the smallness of the changes involved and their rapidity.

That's the difficulty with free-kicks, as you get one, maybe two, and that's why it's tough. You have to score.