268 Quotes by Katherine Paterson

I don’t care. I don’t care”. He was crying now, crying so hard he could barely breathe.

So we children must be thankful to the imperious Dr. Young for making it possible for our parents to meet and our subsequent births.

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.

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...

You save the whales and shoot the people, huh?

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.”

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.

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.

Drive them out utterly, so they may never return and prey upon our people.