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Katherine Paterson

Katherine Paterson Quotes

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Famous Katherine Paterson Quotes

“We humans have had from time unknown the compulsion to name things and thus to be able to deal with them. The name we give to something shapes our attitude toward it. And in ancient thought the name itself has power, so that to know someone's name is to have a certain power over him. And in some societies, as you know, there was a public name and a real or secret name, which would not be revealed to others.”

KnowsGivingHumansRealAbleCertainNamesDealsSecretAttitudeShapesAncientCompulsion
Book:Gates of excellence: on reading and writing books for children
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“a novel is not born of a single idea. The stories I've tried to write from one idea, no matter how terrific an idea, have sputtered out and died by chapter three. For me, novels have invariably come from a complex of ideas that in the beginning seemed to bear no relation to each other, but in the unconscious began mysteriously to merge and grow. Ideas for a novel are like the strong guy lines of a spider web. Without them the silken web cannot be spun.”

WritingIdeasMatterStoriesGuyThreeStrongGrowsBornLinesNovelBearsRelationDiedComplexesUnconsciousChaptersSpidersTerrificSpunSpider Web
Author:Katherine Paterson
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“I am called to listen to the sound of my own heart -- to write the story within myself that demands to be told at that particular point in my life. And if I do this faithfully, clothing that idea in the flesh of human experience and setting it in a true place, the sound from my heart will resound in the reader's heart.”

IfsWritingHumansHeartIdeasStoriesSoundMy OwnParticularReaderMy HeartDemandFleshSettingSettingsClothingsHuman Experience
Author:Katherine Paterson
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“What we need to wake people up to now is the crisis in imagination and concern for the greater good. We have no idea what the next ten years, much less the next fifty years, will demand of the coming generation. What we do know is that unless we have a people prepared and eager to meet those crises creatively and compassionately, there is not much hope for this poor old planet of ours.”

PeopleKnowsNeedsYearsIdeasNextImaginationPoorGreaterGenerationsPlanetsTenDemandConcernCrisisPreparedNo IdeaFiftyGreater Good
Author:Katherine Paterson
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“Still, I kept writing. I had no guarantee that I would someday win awards for writing. Heavens, the only person during that time who seemed to think I could write something worth publishing was my loyal husband. But I always remembered the professor from graduate school who urged me to write and who recommended me for that first writing assignment in 1964. When I protested to Sara Little that I didn't want to add another mediocre writer to the world, she gently reminded me that if I didn't dare mediocrity, I would never write anything at all.”

IfsThinkingWorldWantWritingFirstsLittlesPersonsStillsSchoolWinningHeavenHusbandAddDareRememberedGuaranteesSomedayAwardsProfessorsMediocrityGraduatesLoyalPublishingMediocreAssignmentsGuarantees ThatGraduate School
Book:The Invisible Child: On Reading and Writing Books for Children
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“We can read the paper or current magazines and learn about national and world events, think about controversial subjects, learn how to disagree respectfully, and how, finally, to act on our convictions. We can read for pure delight, and if we do this as a family or classroom or other group we can build wonderful memories.”

IfsThinkingWorldMemoriesWonderfulGroupsSubjectsEventsPurePaperCurrentsDelightConvictionMagazinesDisagreeClassroomControversialWorld EventsWonderful Memories
Author:Katherine Paterson
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“It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations- something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.”

PeopleGivingChildrenBookDifferentEnoughHelpingHappinessReadingImaginationAttitudeTeachOptimismMake SenseReach OutLiteracyWorth ReadingEducation And LiteracyReading And LiteracyBook ReadersReading AloudGreat ReadingChildren ReadingImportance Of ReadingLiteracy And ChildrenLiteracy For ChildrenChildren About ReadingReading Books To ChildrenChildren ImaginationReading Teacher
Author:Katherine Paterson
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“...the long train ride was like traveling through limbo. You weren't anywhere when you were on a train, she decided. You weren't where you had been, and you weren't yet where you were going. You were nowhere. It might be beautiful outside the window-and it was, she had sense enough to realize that-but it wasn't anywhere to her, just a scene passing by that was framed by the train window. (p160)”

LongEnoughMightBeautifulRealizingSceneWindowDecidedTrainPassingPassingsFramedLimboPassing By
Author:Katherine Paterson
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“...I just gave up trying to be a Christian... Let's face it, I ain't got the knack for holiness. Besides, I didn't have the slightest little desire to join the likes of Reverend Pelham at the dinner table for fourteen minutes, much less at the banquet table of Heaven eternally. Eternity is a mighty long time to be stuck with people who judge every word you say and think and condemn most of what you do. It struck me as pretty miserable company. And if Reverend Pelham was the kind of company God preferred to keep, well, I just hoped they'd be happy together.”

PeopleIfsThinkingTryingWellsKindLittlesLongChristianTogetherFacesDesireHeavenCompanyMinutesJudgingLong TimeEternityTablesDinnerStuckLikesMiserableHolinessGave UpFourteenKnackBanquetsDinner TableReverendsWords You SayHappy Together
Author:Katherine Paterson
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“We are trying to communicate that which lies in our deepest heart, which has no words, which can only be hinted at through the means of a story. And somehow, miraculously, a story that comes from deep in my heart calls from a reader that which is deepest in his or her heart, and together from our secret hidden selves we create a story that neither of us could have told alone.”

TryingHeartMeanSelfStoriesTogetherLyingSecretReaderMy HeartCommunicate
Author:Katherine Paterson
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“Words are humanity's greatest natural resource, but most of us have trouble figuring out how to put them together. Words aren't cheap. They are very precious. They are like water, which gives life and growth and refreshment, but because it has always been abundant, we treat it cheaply. We waste it; we pollute it, and doctor it. Later we blame the quality of the water because we have misused it.”

GivingTogetherHumanityGrowthWaterNaturalQualityTroubleWasteResourcesDoctorsTreatsBlameNatural ResourcesMisusedRefreshments
Author:Katherine Paterson
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“It wasn't so much that he minded telling Leslie that he was afraid to go; it was that he minded being afraid. It was as though he had been made with a great piece missing - one of May Belle's puzzles with this huge gap where somebody's eye should have been. Lord, it would be better to be born without an arm than to go through life with no guts.”

ShouldMayHas BeensMadeWould BeEyeBornLordPiecesMissingHugeArmsShould HaveGutsGapsPuzzlesShould Have BeenBeing AfraidBelleLeslie
Book:Bridge to Terabithia
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“. . . Jess believed, that she thought he was the best. It was not the kind of best that counted either at school or at home, but it was a genuine kind of best. He kept the knowledge of it buried inside himself like a pirate treasure. He was rich, very rich, but no one could know about it for now except his fellow outlaw, Julia Edmunds.”

KnowsKindHomeSchoolRichFellowsTreasureGenuineBuriedPirateOutlawJulia
Book:Bridge to Terabithia
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