Quote

You never know ahead of time what something's really going to be like.

Katherine Paterson

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Katherine Paterson
Age: 92
Born: 1932
Born: October 31
Author
Missionary
Novelist
Writer
Katherine Womeldorf Paterson
Ahead
Going
Something
Really
Never
Time
Like

More quotes by Katherine Paterson

Image
The thing I have learned through the years is that one idea 'doth' not a novel make. A novel must be several seemingly unrelated ideas that somehow magically come together to create the fabric of the story.
Katherine Paterson
Image
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
Image
A dream without a plan is just a wish
Katherine Paterson
Image
Since my first novel was rescued from a slush pile, it makes me sad that most publishing houses no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts. Nor are many willing to take chances on novels that are not deemed immediately marketable.
Katherine Paterson
Image
Children have to have access to books, and a lot of children can't go to a store and buy a book. We need not only our public libraries to be funded properly and staffed properly, but our school libraries. Many children can't get to a public library, and the only library they have is a school library.
Katherine Paterson
Image
Youth is a mortal wound.
Katherine Paterson
Image
You have to believe it and you hate it. I don't have to and I think it's beautiful.
Katherine Paterson
Image
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
Image
I'm sure my first nine years have had a powerful influence on the kind of books I write.
Katherine Paterson
Image
You gotta know someone cares about you, or you just give up.
Katherine Paterson
Image
Everything comes in useful once in a hundred years.
Katherine Paterson
Image
I was behaving, just like I promised, but fate intervened.
Katherine Paterson
Image
We all learn here by the honorable path of horrible mistakes.
Katherine Paterson
Image
Words are humanity's greatest natural resource, but most of us have trouble figuring out how to put them together. Words aren't cheap. They are very precious.
Katherine Paterson
Image
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
Image
Crazy people who are judged to be harmless are allowed an enormous amount of freedom ordinary people are denied.
Katherine Paterson
Image
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
Image
We're alike, Jess would tell himself, me and Miss Edmunds . . . We don't belong at Lark Creek, Julia and me.
Katherine Paterson
Image
It's like the smarter you are, the more things can scare you.
Katherine Paterson
Image
Miss Edmunds was one of his secrets. He was in love with her. Not the kind of silly stuff Ellie and Brenda giggled about on the telephone. This was too real and too deep to talk about, even to think about very much.
Katherine Paterson