"Before I was a year old I walked and talked and I was even potty trained. When I started going to school I think I got on everyone's nerves because I used to ask adult questions rather than settle for the stuff usually fed to kids"
About this Quote
The second sentence does the real work. “Adult questions” is a quietly loaded phrase. It implies both intelligence and impatience with the condescension baked into childhood education - “the stuff usually fed to kids” sounds like baby food, not knowledge. The subtext is a critique of gatekeeping: adults don’t merely teach; they curate, dilute, and manage curiosity to preserve authority. Stone positions herself as the kid who refused management, and she acknowledges the social cost: she “got on everyone’s nerves.” That line keeps the boast from curdling into pure self-mythology; it admits that brilliance can be abrasive, and that social acceptance often requires playing smaller.
Context matters because Stone’s public image has always been a battleground between intellect and projection. Hollywood loves a “smart actress” story as long as it’s ornamental; it punishes it when it feels threatening. This quote reads like preemptive self-defense: if you found her intimidating, she was like that early. The intent isn’t just to claim precocity; it’s to reclaim the narrative of being “difficult” as being awake.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Stone, Sharon. (n.d.). Before I was a year old I walked and talked and I was even potty trained. When I started going to school I think I got on everyone's nerves because I used to ask adult questions rather than settle for the stuff usually fed to kids. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/before-i-was-a-year-old-i-walked-and-talked-and-i-166647/
Chicago Style
Stone, Sharon. "Before I was a year old I walked and talked and I was even potty trained. When I started going to school I think I got on everyone's nerves because I used to ask adult questions rather than settle for the stuff usually fed to kids." FixQuotes. Accessed February 1, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/before-i-was-a-year-old-i-walked-and-talked-and-i-166647/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Before I was a year old I walked and talked and I was even potty trained. When I started going to school I think I got on everyone's nerves because I used to ask adult questions rather than settle for the stuff usually fed to kids." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/before-i-was-a-year-old-i-walked-and-talked-and-i-166647/. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.




