Robert Fulghum - World-Renowned Industry Expert

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Life Wisdom Expert

Robert Fulghum Quick Facts

Main Areas: Life Wisdom
Best Sellers: “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” (over 7 million copies sold)
Career Focus: Author; Minister; Philosopher

Robert Fulghum is a best-selling author, even though he never intended to be. In 1985, his short essay won the International Refrigerator Award, the Office Bulletin Board Sweepstakes, the Send-A-Copy-To-Your-Mom Trophy, and even the My-Rabbi-Read-It-In-His-Sermon Prize. He turned the essay into a book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, which has sold seven million copies in at least 39 countries.

Fulghum says that what we learn in kindergarten will come up repeatedly in our lives, and we will be tested over the years to see if we understand what we have learned. He says that we will wrestle with questions of right and wrong and good and bad across the course of our lives. And it will all come back to when we were very young in kindergarten.

When asked what he does for a living, Fulghum replies that he is a philosopher. In his life, he has been a working cowboy, folksinger, IBM salesman, professional artist, parish minister, bartender, teacher of drawing and painting, and father. He has written seven books and in October 2003, published a revised 15th anniversary edition of All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten with 25 new stories. There are currently more than 15 million copies of Fulghum’s books in print, published in 27 languages in 93 countries.

Other Programs & Highlights

There are currently two stage productions based on Robert Fulghum’s books. These original works were adapted by Ernest Zulia with original scores by David Caldwell. Entitled All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten and Uh-Oh, Here Comes Christmas, they are available for licensing through Dramatic Publishing (www.dramaticpublishing.com).

Favorite Quotes & Thoughts from Robert Fulghum

• Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life—learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

• Don’t worry that children never listen to you. Worry that they are always watching you.

• I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge—that myth is more potent than history. I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts—that hope always triumphs over experience—that laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.

• If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience.

• If you want an interesting party sometime, combine cocktails and a fresh box of Crayolas for everybody.

• The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be.

• The world does not need tourists who ride by in a bus clucking their tongues. The world as it is needs those who will love it enough to change it, with what they have, where they are.

• It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need, and our air force has to have a bake-sale to buy a bomber.

Getting Started With Robert Fulghum

There is only one place to start with Robert Fulghum, and that is with his book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, a wonderful adventure in reading and insight. I would best describe Fulghum as a modern day Buddha. The premise of the book is defined by its title. Fulghum takes the wisdom we were taught when we were little children—“Play fair. Don’t hit people. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.”—and expands on it, showing us how he himself applied these principles during his life.

Fulghum is part philosopher, part teacher, part minister, and part student. An example of this can be found in one of the passages and recommendations from his book. Fulghum writes:

Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A Beauty Bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one first—before we tried anything else. It would explode high in the air—explode softly—and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth—boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn’t go cheap, either—not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination instead of death. A child who touched one wouldn’t have his hand blown off.

All in all, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten lets you relive parts of your life and see it again from a simpler perspective. Try to pick up the new and revised 15th anniversary edition.