If you're a kid who is always on the outside hoping to be on the inside, you're watching a lot. You're trying to figure out how to become a normal person in a society that considers you weird.
Katherine PatersonRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights how storytelling expresses deep emotions and connects people.
Katherine Paterson emphasizes the profound nature of storytelling, illustrating how narratives can convey feelings that are often inexpressible with words alone. By sharing stories rooted in personal experiences, both the storyteller and the reader engage in a unique collaboration, uncovering truths from their innermost selves that result in a shared understanding and connection that transcends individual expression.
Themes
StorytellingConnectionEmotionHeartCollaboration
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, when discussing the importance of personal narratives.
More from Katherine Paterson
All quotes →It's such a thrill when an adult comes up to me and says, 'I read your book as a child and really loved it.' That's a tremendous compliment.
Katherine PatersonRead
She had tricked him. She had made him leave his old self behind and come into her world, and then before he was really at home in it but too late to go back, she had left him stranded there--like an astronaut wandering about on the moon. Alone.
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Children have to have access to books, and a lot of children can't go to a store and buy a book. We need not only our public libraries to be funded properly and staffed properly, but our school libraries. Many children can't get to a public library, and the only library they have is a school library.
Katherine PatersonRead
The challenge for those of us who care about our faith and about a hurting world is to tell stories which will carry the words of grace and hope in their bones and sinews and not wear them like fancy dress.
Katherine PatersonRead
The best thing about being a writer is it gives you readers who understand your deepest feelings and fears.
Katherine PatersonRead
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