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Quote by Katherine Paterson

“He [an earnest young reporter] seemed to share the view of many intelligent, well-educated, well-meaning people that, while adult literature may aim to be art, the object of children's books is to whip the little rascals into shape.”

Quote by Katherine Paterson

Book:Read for Your Life #18
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Read for Your Life #18

This volume offers a selection of short stories that span various genres and themes, designed to inspire and entertain readers of all ages. more

Author

Katherine Paterson
Katherine Paterson

Katherine Paterson is an esteemed American children's literature author known for her profound emotions and rich imagination. Her works have won numerous top awards in the American children's literature field, such as the Newbery Medal. Born on October 31, 1932, Paterson's works cover a variety of themes from historical novels to modern life, enjoying great popularity among readers. more

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“When people ask me what qualifies me to be a writer for children, I say I was once a child. But I was not only a child, I was, better still, a weird little kid, and though I would never choose to give my own children this particular preparation for life, there are few things, apparently, more helpful to a writer than having once been a weird little kid.”

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Book:Read for Your Life #18
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“A friend of mine who writes history books said to me that he thought that the two creatures most to be pitied were the spider and the novelist - their lives hanging by a thread spun out of their own guts. But in some ways I think writers of fiction are the creatures most to be envied, because who else besides the spider is allowed to take that fragile thread and weave it into a pattern? What a gift of grace to be able to take the chaos from within and from it to create some semblance of order.”

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“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.”

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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.”

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Author:Katherine Paterson
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