Quotessence
Home / Authors / Katherine Anne Porter
Katherine Anne Porter

Katherine Anne Porter Quotes

Journalist

Filter quotes by topic

AllHumansPeopleIfsKnowsWorldWritingBelieveMenArtGivingThinkingWantChildrenDeathHas BeensNeedsStoriesArtistFirstsHands

Famous Katherine Anne Porter Quotes

“I was always restless, always a roving spirit. When I was a little child I was always running away. I never got very far, but they were always having to come and fetch me. Once when I was about six, my father came to get me somewhere I'd gone, and he told me later he'd asked me, "Why are you so restless? Why can't you stay here with us?" and I said to him, "I want to go and see the world. I want to know the world like the palm of my hand.”

KnowsWorldWantChildrenLittlesSaidHandsRunningSpiritFatherGoneSixRunning AwayPalmsRestlessFetchRovingAlways Running
Author:Katherine Anne Porter
Create image

“Art is a vocation, as much as anything in this world. For the real artist, it is the most natural thing in the world, not as necessary as air and water, perhaps, but as food and water. But we really do lead almost a monastic life, you know; to follow it you very often have to give up something.”

KnowsWorldGivingArtRealArtistWaterNaturalAirThis WorldGiving UpArt IsVocationNatural ThingsAir And WaterReal ArtistsMonastic Life
Book:Katherine Anne Porter: Conversations
Create image

“advance money is really a delusion, that is to say, I get no more until it is paid out in sales, but still, living from hand to mouth and day to day as I do, a nickel in the hand is more useful than the same nickel next year. What do I know about next year? I've never been there. I don't know any one who has.”

KnowsYearsStillsHandsNextFutureMouthsPaidDelusionDay To DayNext YearNickels
Book:Letters of Katherine Anne Porter
Create image

“I started out with nothing in the world but a kind of passion, a driving desire. I don't know where it came from, and I don't know why - or why I have been so stubborn about it that nothing could deflect me. But this thing between me and my writing is the strongest bond I have ever had - stronger than any bond or any engagement with any human being or with any other work I've ever done.”

KnowsWorldWritingHumansKindHas BeensDoneDesirePassionHuman BeingsStrongerDrivingStrongestEngagementStubborn
Book:Katherine Anne Porter: Conversations
Create image

“And yet, we know how fatal the pursuit of liveliness may be: it may result in ... tiresome acrobatics. ... Flashy effects distract the mind. They destroy their persuasiveness; you would not believe a man was very intent on ploughing a furrow if he carried a hoop with him and jumped through it at every other step. ... When virtuosity gets the upper hand of your theme, or is better than your idea, it is time to quit.”

IfsKnowsMenMindBelieveMayIdeasHandsResultsStepsKnow HowEffectsQuittingPursuitCraftsThemeTiresomeFlashyUpper HandVirtuosityPloughingAcrobatics
Author:Katherine Anne Porter
Create image

“A cultivated style would be like a mask. Everybody knows it's a mask, and sooner or later you must show yourself -- or at least, you show yourself as someone who could not afford to show himself, and so created something to hide behind. You do not create a style. You work, and develop yourself; your style is an emanation from your own being.”

KnowsShowsWould BeBehindsStyleMaskSooner Or LaterBehind You
Book:Katherine Anne Porter: Conversations
Create image