Quotes from Katherine Paterson

It's the principle of the thing, Jess . That's what you've got to understand. You have to stop people like that. Otherwise they turn into tyrants and dictators.

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?

soldiers on the banks of the canal, they looked carefully to see whether they were Japanese or Chinese so they'd know which pass to pull out.

all my ancestors were from the South and some even fought and died for the losing side. Perhaps that's why I was long resigned to my failure to publish.

I had so looked forward to her walking." Maud carried her thirteen-month-old sister a few steps away and put her down on her feet. "Walk to Daddy," Maud said, and the baby threw out her arms and took the few steps across the space to her father's chair.

He put down his roll and reached over and took her gnarled hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb. I'm trying to tell the child something only you and I can understand. How good it is to be old. I watched her face go from being startled by his gesture to being pleased that he had somehow joined her side against me. Then she seemed to remember. She drew back her hand. We'll die, she said. Yes, he said. But we'll be ready. The young ones never are.

Win was flabbergasted when he heard me say to the dog: "We don't put our paws on the table while folks are eating, Manch.

The conquering army had perpetrated untold atrocities. The Japanese had occupied my home and twice forced us to leave the land I loved.

Es bonito que alguien te adore. Aunque en ocasiones es incómodo.

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

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

Boy, girl, you just better not try me." He made her swear on the Bible never to tell and never to follow, but still he lay awake a long time. How could he trust everything that mattered to him to a sassy six-year-old? Sometimes it seemed to him that his life was delicate as a dandelion. One little puff from any direction, and it was blown to bits.

She had nothing against any of the other guests, but once she started she saw no way to stop. There was nothing to do but turn the hose against every arriving guest. No one coming out of the house to reason with her was safe either.

so I told him jokes. "Do you know why radio announcers have tiny hands?" "Huh?" "Wee paws for station identification," I would whoop.

John softened, and many years later he said to me, "You know, if we were ever to divorce, I get the cat." There is a

Leslie was more than his friend. She was his other, more exciting self - his way to Terabithia and all the worlds beyond.

You're the proverbial diamond in the rough, she'd said to him once, touching his nose lightly with the tip of her electrifying finger.

But I had never caused my parents a minute's worry. Didn't they know that worry proves you care? Didn't they realize that I needed their worry to assure myself that I was worth something?

To give children the words they need is to give them life, growth and refreshment

He didn't want to die. He had hardly begun to live.

was appalled that I was heading across the world for four years, asked me: "How could you do this to your mother?" "Well," I answered, "she did it to her mother." But when my parents went to China it was different.

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.

Jess vio cómo su padre detenía la camioneta y se inclinaba a abrir la puerta para que May Belle pudiera subir. Se volvió. Pequeña con suerte. Ella podía correr tras él y cogerle y besarle. Jess sentía un dolor por dentro cuando veía a su padre subir a las pequeñas en sus hombros o se agachaba para darles un abrazo. Le parecía que creían que era demasiado grande para esas cosas desde que nació.

Are you tired, Mary?" I asked. She raised her weary gaze to me. "My socks are tired," she said. "And my shoes won't even walk." To this day whenever in our family we want to express complete exhaustion, we employ Mary's eloquent description of her socks.