Top 180 Katherine Paterson Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “The conquering army had perpetrated untold atrocities. The Japanese had occupied my home and twice forced us to leave the land I loved.”

— Katherine Paterson

152. “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

153. “We are not wise enough, we adults, to know what book will be right for any child at any particular moment, but the richer the book, the more imaginative, the more emotionally true, the more beautiful the language, the better the chance that it will minister to a child’s deep, inarticulate fears.”

— Katherine Paterson

154. “We must have received our share of startled looks from the crew and other passengers – this seven-member family emerging from their third-class lower deck and climbing into a waiting chauffeur-driven limousine.”

— Katherine Paterson

155. “In each of the separate sections Mother would put a different treat – sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, sesame cookies, and peanuts.”

— Katherine Paterson

156. “Impressed. Lord. He had nearly drowned.”

— Katherine Paterson

157. “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

158. “Church always seemed the same. Jess could tune it out the same way he tuned out school, with his body standing up and sitting down in unison with the rest of the congregation but his mind numb and floating, not really thinking or dreaming but at least free.”

— Katherine Paterson

159. “Now it was time for him to move out. She wasn’t there, so he must go for both of them. It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength.”

— Katherine Paterson

160. “I can’t believe there will ever be a time when the book is truly obsolete. It is the perfect technology and feeds the soul.”

— Katherine Paterson

161. “I knew that day that as long as I lived I would remember that my mother had cared more about how her child felt than any cherished antique, and I resolved that if I ever had any children I would remember that scene. I must never forget that a child’s feelings are always more important than any possession.”

— Katherine Paterson

162. “She ran as though it was her nature. It reminded him of the flight of wild ducks in the autumn.”

— Katherine Paterson

163. “My father loved peanuts and bought quantities of them to take along, only to find to his chagrin that peanuts were one of China’s leading exports. They also went to Chinatown, feeling that since they were headed for China, they should try Chinese food. The only thing on the menu that they recognized was chicken, but when it came the bones were black, so they were afraid to eat it.”

— Katherine Paterson

164. “I used to try to decide which was the worst month of the year. In the winter I would choose February. I had it figured out that 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

165. “There are no guarantees of success, much less of quality. If you don’t dare to be a mediocre writer, you’ll never be a writer at all.”

— Katherine Paterson

166. “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

167. “Intoxicated as he was with the heavens, he could not imagine needing anything on earth.”

— Katherine Paterson

168. “St. Faith’s, as she called her compound, was financed entirely by donations, some from friends abroad and some from admiring Chinese benefactors.”

— Katherine Paterson

169. “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

170. “I suppose if alcohol had been available to me that November, I would have become a drunk. As it was, the only thing I could lose my miserable self in was books.”

— Katherine Paterson

171. “Whoever heard of a king who was scared of tall trees and a little bit of water?”

— Katherine Paterson

172. “She wasn’t scared of going deep, deep down in a world of no air and little light.”

— Katherine Paterson

173. “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

174. “You save the whales and shoot the people, huh?”

— Katherine Paterson

175. “I will arise,” he replied with dignity, “when thou removes this fool dog off my gut.”

— Katherine Paterson

176. “One of the young men she had just met had obviously paid for her ride. Her face was red when he came down the aisle. “I guess,” he said, grinning, “if I pay your fare I can sit by you.”

— Katherine Paterson

177. “In February the weather sometimes gave us a vacation, in August, never. We just got up earlier every morning until finally we met ourselves going to bed.”

— Katherine Paterson

178. “Mother put it like this: “Besides taking out my misplaced appendix, he put all my other insides just where they should have been.”

— Katherine Paterson

179. “Thinking about myself as a crazy, independent old woman made me feel almost happy.”

— Katherine Paterson

180. “We need a place”, she said, “just for us. It would be so secret that we would never tell anyone in the whole world about it.”

— Katherine Paterson

181. “Well, I’ve never been to a church before. It would be a new experience for me.” He went back to work. “You’d hate it.” “Why?” “It’s boring.”

— Katherine Paterson

182. “How could he explain? If he told her that after the vision, all the knights had gone in quest of the Grail, would she understand?”

— Katherine Paterson

183. “To give children the words they need is to give them life, growth and refreshment.”

— Katherine Paterson

184. “He didn’t want to die. He had hardly begun to live.”

— Katherine Paterson

185. “Whenever I am tempted to dismiss the poor or uneducated for their vulgar tastes, I see the face of old Auntie Braxton, as she stands stock still in front of our picket fence, lips parted to reveal her almost toothless gums, drinking in a polonaise as though it were heavenly nourishment.”

— Katherine Paterson