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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

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Katherine Paterson
Age: 92
Born: 1932
Born: October 31
Author
Missionary
Novelist
Writer
Katherine Womeldorf Paterson
Ideas
Somehow
Come
Novel
Must
Learned
Magically
Thing
Create
Unrelated
Years
Story
Seemingly
Make
Idea
Doth
Stories
Fabric
Together
Several

More quotes by Katherine Paterson

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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.
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...those of us who write for children are called, not to do something to a child, but be someone for a child.
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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.
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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.
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I was behaving, just like I promised, but fate intervened.
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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.
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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.
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A dream without a plan is just a wish
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It seems to me that there are two great enemies of peace - fear and selfishness.
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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.
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I'm sure my first nine years have had a powerful influence on the kind of books I write.
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Shh he said. Look. Where? Can't you see'um? he whispered. All the Terabithians standing on tiptoe to see you. Me? Shh, yes. There's a rumor going around that the beautiful girl arrving today might be the queen they've been waiting for.
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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.
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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.
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You don't have to fight dragons to write books. You just have to live deeply the life you've been given.
Katherine Paterson
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It's like the smarter you are, the more things can scare you.
Katherine Paterson
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It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength.
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Punch after punch after punch. February is a mean bully. Nothing could be worse - except August.
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Lord, let me heed the angels you put in my path.
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You never know ahead of time what something's really going to be like.
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