Top 120 Katherine Applegate Quotes (2026 Update)
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51. “Photosynthesize.”

— Katherine Applegate

52. “My point,” Bongo continued, “is that the world’s a tough place. Doesn’t matter if you’re a bunny or a lizard or a kid.”

— Katherine Applegate

53. “What gifts did the world give you today? What gifts did you give the world?”

— Katherine Applegate

54. “Gently, because trees are like quiet friends and you have to be kind to them.”

— Katherine Applegate

55. “You can’t have real pain without real love. You can’t feel grief and loss and hurt without real love. Love is the only way you can ever be really hurt deep down.”

— Katherine Applegate

56. “Hollows are proof that something bad can become something good with enough time and care and hope” -Red.”

— Katherine Applegate

57. “I was born in a place humans call central Africa, in a dense rain forest so beautiful, no crayons could ever do it justice.”

— Katherine Applegate

58. “Full emergency power to the engines. Ram the Blade ship.”

— Katherine Applegate

59. “She is like a newborn sun, fresh with promise, the just beginning moments before the day fills like a bucket with good and bad, sweat and longing.”

— Katherine Applegate

60. “Fun fact, Jackson. You can’t see sound waves, but you can hear music.”

— Katherine Applegate

61. “Those are the stars that will guide my path home.”

— Katherine Applegate

62. “They pass their green paper, dry as old leaves and smelling of a thousand hands, back and forth and back again. They hunt frantically, stalking, pushing, grumbling. Then they leave, clutching bags filled with things – bright things, soft things, big things – but no matter how full the bags, they always come back for more.”

— Katherine Applegate

63. “If you’re not afraid, you’re a fool. If you are afraid, even scared to death, and keep your head? That is called courage.”

— Katherine Applegate

64. “Our stories don’t make their homes in heavy books. We hold our stories in our songs.”

— Katherine Applegate

65. “It’s OAT-freaking-MEAL!”

— Katherine Applegate

66. “Mosquitoes are the greatest mass murderers on planet Earth.”

— Katherine Applegate

67. “A first friend is a true gift, because forever after, your heart knows what’s possible.”

— Katherine Applegate

68. “Is there anything sweeter than the touch of another as she pulls a dead bug from your fur?”

— Katherine Applegate

Featured in: Romance Quotes

69. “And oh, god, how could so much regret and so much sweetness and so much sadness all be present in that single moment. I was already dead and missing my unlived life. I was already dead and Tobias was mourning. I tried to smile. For him.”

— Katherine Applegate

70. “Not long ago, a little boy stood before my glass, tears streaming down his smooth red cheeks. “He must be the loneliest gorilla in the world,” he said, clutching his mother’s hand. At times like that, I wish humans could understand me the way I can understand them. It’s not so bad, I wanted to tell the little boy. With enough time, you can get used to almost anything.”

— Katherine Applegate

71. “I try to understand, but all I hear is a river of words, rushing and thundering and pushing me beneath the surface. Now and then a word I know darts up like a sparkling fish, but then it’s all dark moving water again.”

— Katherine Applegate

72. “Humans. Violent but peace-loving. Passionate but cerebral. Humane but cruel. Impulsive but calculating. Generous but selfish. And yet, somehow I knew that they represented the best hope of the galaxy.”

— Katherine Applegate

73. “What bothered me most, though, was that I couldn’t fix anything. I couldn’t control anything. It was like driving a bumper car without a steering wheel. I kept getting slammed, and I just had to sit there and hold on tight.”

— Katherine Applegate

74. “Here’s the thing, Jackson. Life is messy. It’s complicated. It would be nice if life were always like this.” He drew an imaginary line that kept going up and up. “But life is actually a lot more like this.” He made a jiggly line that went up and down like a mountain range. “You just have to keep trying.”

— Katherine Applegate

75. “But even though I draw the same things over and over again, I never get bored with my art. When I’m drawing, that’s all I think about. I don’t think about where I am, about yesterday or tomorrow. I just move my crayons across the paper.”

— Katherine Applegate

76. “The way I understand things, it’s like this. We live on a lonely ball called Earth, and humans have basically been throwing it against the wall for so long that the poor ol’ ball is falling apart.”

— Katherine Applegate

77. “Death’s gruesome face taunts: soulless eyes, crimson grimace. I really hate clowns.”

— Katherine Applegate

78. “And that’s how we ended up discovering the evil horses that threatened all of humanity.”

— Katherine Applegate

79. “It’s not so bad, I wanted to tell the little boy. With enough time, you can get used to almost anything.”

— Katherine Applegate

80. “My mom told me once that money problems sort of sneak up on you. She said it’s like catching a cold. At first you just have a tickle in your throat, and then you have a headache, and then maybe you’re coughing a little. The next thing you know, you have a pile of Kleenexes around your bed and you’re hacking your lungs up.”

— Katherine Applegate

81. “I have been in my domain for nine thousand eight hundred and fifty-five days. Alone. For.”

— Katherine Applegate

82. “Maybe dreams aren’t in your head. Maybe dreams are memories of another universe.”

— Katherine Applegate

83. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll be there, but I promise to complain the entire time.”

— Katherine Applegate

84. “Earth is the crossroads of every possible alien. We’re the McDonald’s next to the highway of the galaxy.”

— Katherine Applegate

85. “When you’ve been through the worst with someone, you appreciate the best.”

— Katherine Applegate

86. “I like not knowing everything. It makes things more interesting.”

— Katherine Applegate

87. “Morning is like a gift you get to open every single day.”

— Katherine Applegate

88. “She said she sometimes wondered if maybe bats are better human beings than human beings are.”

— Katherine Applegate

89. “Lesson Number One in Everworld: There’s them, and there’s us. And any day we can keep them from destroying us, that’s a victory.”

— Katherine Applegate

90. “Maybe it’s easier to forgive others once you’ve learned how to forgive yourself.”

— Katherine Applegate

91. “I was small. And sometimes disappointing. But I knew I could be brave as well. I was not afraid to be the first to die. I just did not want to be the last to live. I did not want to be the endling.”

— Katherine Applegate

92. “Crenshaw and I didn’t chat much during those weeks on the road. There was always someone around to interrupt us. But that was okay. I knew he was there and that was enough. Sometimes that’s all you really need from a friend.”

— Katherine Applegate

93. “I’m not sure you understand. That box might be taking you to a place where there are other elephants,” I say. “A place with more room, and humans who care about you.” But even as I say these words, I remember with a shudder the last box I was in. “I don’t want a zoo,” Ruby says. “I want you and Bob and Julia. This is my home.” “No, Ruby,” I say. “This is your prison.”

— Katherine Applegate

94. “Imaginary friends are like books. We’re created, we’re enjoyed, we’re dog-eared and creased, and then we’re tucked away until we’re needed again.”

— Katherine Applegate

95. “I think I’ve always been an artist. Even as a baby, still clinging to my mother, I had an artist’s eye. I saw shapes in the clouds, and sculptures in the tumbled stones at the bottom of a stream. I grabbed at colors – the crimson flower just out of reach, the ebony bird streaking past.”

— Katherine Applegate

96. “David, when it happens... when it happens, David, will you save me?”

— Katherine Applegate

97. “The ones we love,” says Aunt Akello, “live forever in our hearts.”

— Katherine Applegate

98. “With a great show of effort, Crenshaw sat up. He stretched, easing his back into an upside-down U. “I don’t think you understand what’s going on here, Jackson,” he said. “Imaginary friends don’t come of their own volition. We are invited. We stay as long as we’re needed. And then, and only then, do we leave.” “Well, I sure didn’t invite you.” Crenshaw sent me a doubtful look. His long, whiskery brows moved like strings on a marionette.”

— Katherine Applegate

99. “I’m picky. Not so much about looks, although even there I’m kind of picky. It’s more that I can’t pretend some guy is interesting when he’s not. If he’s immature, I’ll probably tell him so. Within five minutes of knowing him. And if he looks ridiculous dressed up like some wannabe, I’ll probably say that, too, or more likely just steer clear of him.”

— Katherine Applegate

100. “Ninety percent of the trouble in this world comes from guys who think they have something to prove.”

— Katherine Applegate