Katherine Paterson Quotes

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If you could hold your nose to avoid a stink, or close your eyes to cut out a sight, why not shut off your brain to avoid a thought?
Katherine Paterson Quotes: If you could hold your
I had so looked forward to her walking." Maud carried her thirteen-month-old sister a few steps away and put her down on her feet. "Walk to Daddy," Maud said, and the baby threw out her arms and took the few steps across the space to her father's chair.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: I had so looked forward
Read for fun, read for information, read in order to understand yourself and other people with quite different ideas. Learn about the world beyond your door. Learn to be compassionate and grow in wisdom. Books can help us in all these ways.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Read for fun, read for
Nothing smelled so good or danced so well as a birch fire.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Nothing smelled so good or
All of us can think of a book ... that we hope none of our children or any other children have taken off the shelf. But if I have the right to remove that book from the shelf - that work I abhor - then you also have exactly the same right and so does everyone else. And then we have no books left on the shelf for any of us.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: All of us can think
A good story is alive, ever changing and growing as it meets each listener or reader in a spirited and unique encounter, while the moralistic tale is not only dead on arrival, it's already been embalmed. It's safer that way. When a lively story goes dancing out to meet the imagination of a child, the teller loses control over meaning. The child gets to decide what the story means.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: A good story is alive,
All my dreams of leaving, but beneath them I was afraid to go. I had clung to them, to Rass, yes, even to my grandmother, afraid that if I loosened my fingers an iota, I would find myself once more cold and clean in a forgotten basket.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: All my dreams of leaving,
Hope ... is not a feeling; it is something you do.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Hope ... is not a
A novel is not born of a single idea. The stories I've tried to write from one idea, no matter how terrific an idea, have sputtered out and died by chapter three. For me, novels have invariably come from a complex of ideas that in the beginning seemed to bear no relation to each other, but in the unconscious began mysteriously to merge and grow. Ideas for a novel are like the strong guy lines of a spider web. Without them the silken web cannot be spun.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: A novel is not born
The name we give to something shapes our attitude toward it.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: The name we give to
The challenge for those of us who care about our faith and about a hurting world is to tell stories which will carry the words of grace and hope in their bones and sinews and not wear them like fancy dress.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: The challenge for those of
Don't tell me no one ever gave you a chance. You don't need anything given to you. You can make your own chances. But first you have to know what you're after, my dear.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Don't tell me no one
I'm a great believer in research. I have to know about a place before I write a story that is set in that place.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: I'm a great believer in
Obviously, I love to do both contemporary and historical fiction. When a hint of a story grabs me, I try to go with it to see where it will take me whatever the setting.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Obviously, I love to do
It's crazy isn't it?" She shook her head. "You have to believe it, but you hate it. I don't have to believe it, and I think it's beautiful." She shook her head again. "It's crazy.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: It's crazy isn't it?
You have to believe it and you hate it. I don't have to and I think it's beautiful.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: You have to believe it
Sometimes you need to give people something that's for them, not just something that makes you feel good giving it.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Sometimes you need to give
a dream without a plan is just a wish
Katherine Paterson Quotes: a dream without a plan
If you're so afraid of your imagination that you stifle it, how are you going to know God? How can you imagine heaven?
Katherine Paterson Quotes: If you're so afraid of
If you're a kid who is always on the outside hoping to be on the inside, you're watching a lot. You're trying to figure out how to become a normal person in a society that considers you weird.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: If you're a kid who
The growth of the imagination demands windows-windows through which we can look out at the world and windows through which we can look into ourselves. The old stories were windows in just this way.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: The growth of the imagination
I realize, of course, that I wasn't born knowing how to read. I just can't imagine a time when I didn't know how.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: I realize, of course, that
He put down his roll and reached over and took her gnarled hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb. "I'm trying to tell the child something only you and I can understand. How good it is to be old."
I watched her face go from being startled by his gesture to being pleased that he had somehow joined her side against me. Then she seemed to remember. She drew back her hand.
"We'll die," she said.
"Yes," he said. "But we'll be ready. The young ones never are.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: He put down his roll
He had promised Leslie that after Christmas he would stay home and fix up the house and plant his garden and listen to music and read books out loud and write only in his spare time.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: He had promised Leslie that
There was one path across Boston Commons that a young man must not ask a young woman to take unless he meant business. Which path was that? she asked Holmes. "Ah," she remembered the elderly doctor saying, "if I were only fifty years younger I would show you.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: There was one path across
If we marvel at the artist who has written a great book, we must marvel more at those people whose lives are works of art and who don't even know it, who wouldn't believe it if they were told. However hard work good writing may be, it is easier than good living.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: If we marvel at the
If you wanted to greet him or get his attention, you had to say: "Oh, Mr. Forest-Ranger-who-stands-in-the-tower-watching-out-for-forest fires!" If you abbreviated it, or, heaven help us, addressed him simply as "David," you would get no response.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: If you wanted to greet
When my husband died, people kept telling me not to cry. People kept trying to help me to forget. But I didn't want to forget ... So I realize, that if it's hard for me, how much harder it must be for you.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: When my husband died, people
As much pleasure as young people get from Twittering and texting, there is no way these activities will nourish their minds and spirits the way literature can.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: As much pleasure as young
She had tricked him. She had made him leave his old self behind and come into her world, and then before he was really at home in it but too late to go back, she had left him stranded there
like an astronaut wandering about on the moon. Alone.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: She had tricked him. She
Trouble can always be borne when it is shared.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Trouble can always be borne
I feel very silly saying to you, Tell me all about yourself, but I wish you would. I want to get to know you.
That's not how you get to know people. Don't you know? You can't talk it out, you've got to live into their lives, bad and good. You'll know me soon enough. What I want you to know.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: I feel very silly saying
Jess drew the way some people drink whiskey.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Jess drew the way some
watched in horror until Walter Cronkite finally announced the news that Kennedy was dead. The boys didn't try to argue about the stupidity of the ancient Hebrews again.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: watched in horror until Walter
I just gave up trying to be a Christian ... Let's face it, I ain't got the knack for holiness. Besides, I didn't have the slightest little desire to join the likes of Reverend Pelham at the dinner table for fourteen minutes, much less at the banquet table of Heaven eternally. Eternity is a mighty long time to be stuck with people who judge every word you say and think and condemn most of what you do. It struck me as pretty miserable company. And if Reverend Pelham was the kind of company God preferred to keep, well, I just hoped they'd be happy together.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: I just gave up trying
I like to write about a lot of things, which is why my books are different. This is probably why I don't like to write sequels, but chiefly I like to write about people.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: I like to write about
Those of us who write for children are called, not to do something to a child, but be someone for a child.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Those of us who write
Reading can be a road to freedom or a key to a secret garden, which, if tended, will transform all of life.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Reading can be a road
What we need to wake people up to now is the crisis in imagination and concern for the greater good. We have no idea what the next ten years, much less the next fifty years, will demand of the coming generation. What we do know is that unless we have a people prepared and eager to meet those crises creatively and compassionately, there is not much hope for this poor old planet of ours.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: What we need to wake
when I am in a foreign city and feel even the slightest bit disoriented, I can feel the panic of that day on the Hong Kong street begin to rise in my chest. My story of being lost ended quickly and happily, but it still haunts me.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: when I am in a
We all learn here by the honorable path of horrible mistakes.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: We all learn here by
Leslie was one of those people who sat quietly at her desk, never whispering or daydreaming or chewing gum, doing beautiful schoolwork, and yet her brain was so full of mischief that if the teacher could have once seen through that mask of perfection, she would have thrown her out in horror.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Leslie was one of those
Youth is a mortal wound.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Youth is a mortal wound.
They ate a late lunch in the cafeteria. When she mentioned lunch, he realized with horror that he would need money, and he didn't know how to tell her that he hadn't brought any - didn't have any to bring, for that matter. But before he had time to figure anything out, she said, Now I'm not going to have any argument about whose paying. I'm a liberated woman, Jess Aarons. When I invite a man out, I pay.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: They ate a late lunch
Thus, in a real sense, I am constantly writing autobiography,
but I have to turn it into fiction in order to give it credibility.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Thus, in a real sense,
It seemed to Gilly that everything in this world that you can't stand to wait one extra minute for is always late.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: It seemed to Gilly that
Kids often ask me if characters are real or made up - and I always tell them, 'I hope they're real but I made them up.'
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Kids often ask me if
You never know ahead of time what something's really going to be like.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: You never know ahead of
But I had never caused my parents "a minute's worry." Didn't they know that worry proves you care? Didn't they realize that I needed their worry to assure myself that I was worth something?
Katherine Paterson Quotes: But I had never caused
A novel is a kind of conversion experience. We come away from it changed.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: A novel is a kind
It wasn't so much that he minded telling Leslie that he was afraid to go; it was that he minded being afraid. It was as though he had been made with a great piece missing - one of May Belle's puzzles with this huge gap where somebody's eye should have been. Lord, it would be better to be born without an arm than to go through life with no guts.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: It wasn't so much that
Win was flabbergasted when he heard me say to the dog: We don't put our paws on the table while folks are eating, Manch.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Win was flabbergasted when he
To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: To fear is one thing.
Death is very mysterious to us. One moment someone is there with us, and the next moment they're not.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Death is very mysterious to
The work reveals the creator - and as our universe in its vastness, its orderliness, its exquisite detail, tells us something of the One who made it, so a work of fiction, for better or worse, will reveal the writer.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: The work reveals the creator
One thing living in Japan did for me was to make me feel that what is left out of a work of art is as important as, if not more important than, what is put in.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: One thing living in Japan
I love to read. But I loved to read a lot longer than I started to love writing.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: I love to read. But
Crazy people who are judged to be harmless are allowed an enormous amount of freedom ordinary people are denied.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Crazy people who are judged
Reading has made such a profound difference to my life. I'm sure I became a writer because of the power of literature in my own life.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Reading has made such a
She had nothing against any of the other guests, but once she started she saw no way to stop. There was nothing to do but turn the hose against every arriving guest. No one coming out of the house to reason with her was safe either.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: She had nothing against any
The reason God made February short a few days was because he knew that by the time people came to the end of it they would die if they had to stand one more blasted day.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: The reason God made February
I love revisions ... We can't go back and revise our lives, but being allowed to go back and revise what we have written comes closest.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: I love revisions ... We
The problem with people who are afraid of imagination, of fantasy, is that their world becomes so narrow that I don't see how they can imagine beyond what their senses can verify. We know from science that there are entire worlds that our senses can't verify.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: The problem with people who
The very persons who have taken away my time and space are those who have given me something to say.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: The very persons who have
The world that is in me is the only world I have by which to grasp the world outside and as I write fiction, it is the chart by which I must steer.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: The world that is in
Punch after punch after punch. February is a mean bully. Nothing could be worse - except August.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Punch after punch after punch.
The wonderful thing about books is that they allow us to enter imaginatively into someone else's life. And when we do that, we learn to sympathize with other people. But the real surprise is that we also learn truths about ourselves, about our own lives, that somehow we hadn't been able to see before.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: The wonderful thing about books
The long train ride was like traveling through limbo. You weren't anywhere when you were on a train, she decided. You weren't where you had been, and you weren't yet where you were going. You were nowhere. It might be beautiful outside the window-and it was, she had sense enough to realize that-but it wasn't anywhere to her, just a scene passing by that was framed by the train window. (p160)
Katherine Paterson Quotes: The long train ride was
The moral, of course, is that you must always try to see other people's Point of View before you criticize anybody. Histories are crammed full of unkind things, silly things, and untrue things - why? Because so often the people who write them will not try to see or feel any Point of View but their own ... So mind that you always look out for the Point of View and help people to see yours, too, if you want them to understand you.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: The moral, of course, is
Leslie was more than his friend. She was his other, more exciting self - his way to Terabithia and all the worlds beyond.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Leslie was more than his
What a gift of grace to be able to take the chaos from within and from it create some semblance of order.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: What a gift of grace
John softened, and many years later he said to me, "You know, if we were ever to divorce, I get the cat." There is a
Katherine Paterson Quotes: John softened, and many years
I stood there and watched thirty-five children disappear in almost as many different directions and was suddenly horrified by what I'd done. What if someone got lost or hurt? Suppose they didn't come back on time? What would I do then?
Katherine Paterson Quotes: I stood there and watched
Brenda's pouting voice broke in, Your girl friend's dead, and Momma thought you was dead, too.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Brenda's pouting voice broke in,
Brenda burst in. "Do you know what some people do? They charge something and wear it, and then take it back and say it didn't fit or something. The stores don't give 'em no trouble." Her father turned in a kind of roar. "I never heard such a fool thing in my life. Didn't you hear your mother tell you to shut your mouth, girl!
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Brenda burst in.
Cows ... weren't like people, with feelings of lonesomeness and worrying about what might happen next. That was just people, wasn't it? Sure, you could scare a cow, but wouldn't they get over it as soon as you let them be? They didn't stand around fretting about the next scare and the next and the next.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Cows ... weren't like people,
It's like the smarter you are, the more things can scare you.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: It's like the smarter you
It was a three-dimensional nightmare version of some of his own drawings.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: It was a three-dimensional nightmare
Handle with care - everything - even the predators.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Handle with care - everything
Drive them out utterly, so they may never return and prey upon our people.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Drive them out utterly, so
This is what art is all about. It is weaving fabric from the feathers you have plucked from your own breast. But no one must ever see the process - only the finished bolt of goods. They must never suspect that that crimson thread running through the pattern is blood.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: This is what art is
Dammit, Trotter. Don't try to make a stinking Christian out of me.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Dammit, Trotter. Don't try to
The difference between writing a story and simply relating past events is that a story, in order to be acceptable, must have shape and meaning. It is the old idea that art is the bringing of order out of chaos ...
Katherine Paterson Quotes: The difference between writing a
How could he explain it in a way Leslie would understand, how he yearned to reach out and capture the quivering life about him and how when he tried, it slipped past his fingertips, leaving a dry fossil upon the page?
Katherine Paterson Quotes: How could he explain it
I think, she began quietly, I think we want ... not just bread for our bellies. We want more than only bread. We want food for our hearts, our souls. We want- how to say it? We want, you know- Puccini music ... we want for our beautiful children some beauty. She leaned over and kissed the curl on her finger. We want roses ...
Katherine Paterson Quotes: I think, she began quietly,
soldiers on the banks of the canal, they looked carefully to see whether they were Japanese or Chinese so they'd know which pass to pull out.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: soldiers on the banks of
My writing comes from ideas that make a sound in my heart.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: My writing comes from ideas
It's the principle of the thing, Jess . That's what you've got to understand. You have to stop people like that. Otherwise they turn into tyrants and dictators.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: It's the principle of the
One of the novels that was hardest for me to write had to deal with the horrible slaughter of war. I almost didn't finish Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom for just that reason.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: One of the novels that
My dearest Friend, As I am urging our students to write a note to their mothers away from Shanghai, I think of you as a mother to so many of our Chinese girls. The greatness and depth of your love only God knows how to measure and reward you. Thinking of you has always been an inspiration to me. I love you. Lovingly yours, Tszo-Sing Chen
Katherine Paterson Quotes: My dearest Friend, As I
Civilization as well as education takes a downward spiral when it ceases to ask "What is truth?" and concerns itself primarily with what is measurable.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Civilization as well as education
Leslie called them Judy and Bill, which bothered Jess more than he wanted it to. It was none of his business what Leslie called her parents. But he just couldn't get used to it.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Leslie called them Judy and
I'd like for the young people, and older ones, too, who don't count themselves as readers, to know the joy of reading and what it does to enrich your life in so many ways.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: I'd like for the young
A story is open-ended. A story invites you into it to make your own meaning.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: A story is open-ended. A
Impressed. Lord. He had nearly drowned.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Impressed. Lord. He had nearly
all my ancestors were from the South and some even fought and died for the losing side. Perhaps that's why I was long resigned to my failure to publish.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: all my ancestors were from
The basic task of education is the care and feeding of the imagination.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: The basic task of education
Self-censorship can be very damaging to a story. When our chief goal is not to offend someone, we are not likely to write a book that will deeply affect someone.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: Self-censorship can be very damaging
When people ask me what qualifies me to be a writer for children, I say I was once a child. But I was not only a child, I was, better still, a weird little kid, and though I would never choose to give my own children this particular preparation for life, there are few things, apparently, more helpful to a writer than having once been a weird little kid.
Katherine Paterson Quotes: When people ask me what
I love revision. Where else can spilled milk be turned into ice cream?
Katherine Paterson Quotes: I love revision. Where else
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