Stories of My Life Quotes

“watched in horror until Walter Cronkite finally announced the news that Kennedy was dead. The boys didn’t try to argue about the stupidity of the ancient Hebrews again.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“For the only time in my life I would be living with a chain-smoking semi-invalid whose chief point of pride in life was his membership in the Ku Klux Clan.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“There are no guarantees of success, much less of quality. If you don’t dare to be a mediocre writer, you’ll never be a writer at all.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“If you wanted to greet him or get his attention, you had to say: “Oh, Mr. Forest-Ranger-who-stands-in-the-tower-watching-out-for-forest fires!” If you abbreviated it, or, heaven help us, addressed him simply as “David,” you would get no response.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“daredevil nature as a young man. When I read what William Roth had written, I sighed. So that was where my own two boys had gotten the trait that was turning their mother’s hair gray.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“She jerked to life, her eyes wide open. “Why did that woman give me away?” Then it all began to pour out. Why had she been given away? We’d never told her she was a foundling.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“I stood there and watched thirty-five children disappear in almost as many different directions and was suddenly horrified by what I’d done. What if someone got lost or hurt? Suppose they didn’t come back on time? What would I do then?”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“The Municipal Councils in these areas excluded Chinese members, and the police and civil servants were foreigners. Even the names of the streets reflected foreign imperialism—such as Jessfield Road, on which St. Faith’s was located.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“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.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“when I am in a foreign city and feel even the slightest bit disoriented, I can feel the panic of that day on the Hong Kong street begin to rise in my chest. My story of being lost ended quickly and happily, but it still haunts me.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“To blame were two young radicals, a country bumpkin named Mao Tse-tung and a disillusioned intellectual by the name of Zhou En Lai. These two had had the nerve to ask the owners of the mills to install safety devices so that the children and old people who worked long hours would no longer in their weariness lose fingers and even hands in the machinery.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“One of the young men she had just met had obviously paid for her ride. Her face was red when he came down the aisle. “I guess,” he said, grinning, “if I pay your fare I can sit by you.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“In the Book of Genesis, Abraham believes that God is commanding him to sacrifice his beloved son as proof of his love and obedience. But just as Abraham is about to thrust the knife into his terrified child, an angel grasps his hand and there in the thicket is a sheep that God has provided for the sacrifice. Most people find this story horrifying, but what my father taught me that day was this: No matter how sacred the calling appears, it is not God’s will for parents to sacrifice their children.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“reassigned to Zhenjiang”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“I got up the nerve to ask her if she remembered that first visit and my terrible faux pas. She pretended, in true Japanese fashion, that it had never happened.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“A colleague of hers had discovered that the Biblical sentence found in John 4:7 contained all the sounds in nearly every known language.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“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”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“St. Faith’s, as she called her compound, was financed entirely by donations, some from friends abroad and some from admiring Chinese benefactors.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“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.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“she had stood at the gate of her compound and told the Japanese soldiers there that if they tried to come in and get her girls, they would have to do it across her dead body. This”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“This story is about John, who was a private in the 2nd Georgia Battalion Infantry. I had always been told that John had taken part in Pickett’s Charge, the bloody assault on Cemetery Ridge on July 3, 1863. Actually he was mortally wounded very close to Cemetery Hill on July 2 the day before that tragic charge.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“to my father’s amazement, was an ancient but clearly recognizable painting of Marco Polo, who must have visited Huai’an during his thirteenth-century travels about China. The priest asked my father to donate a picture of Jesus for his collection, and, after thinking about it, Daddy did.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“Mother put it like this: “Besides taking out my misplaced appendix, he put all my other insides just where they should have been.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“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.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“So we children must be thankful to the imperious Dr. Young for making it possible for our parents to meet and our subsequent births.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“One of the novels that was hardest for me to write had to deal with the horrible slaughter of war. I almost didn’t finish Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom for just that reason.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“Once there, the chaplain closed the door and threw his arms around her. Alarmed, she jammed the heel of her pump into his foot. He let go with a howl and she fled. The incident was never spoken of again until she had daughters of her own. I can remember at about thirteen staring wide-eyed at my proper mother when she thought it time to tell me this cautionary tale.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“No,” I said primly, I had no intention of being a writer because “I wouldn’t want to add another mediocre writer to the world.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“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.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life

“one day when I was changing her diapers she took my hand and put it on her tummy, so I tickled her. My reward was her first smile.”
― Katherine Paterson, Stories of My Life