Katherine Paterson

I love writing for young adults because they are such a wonderful audience, they are good readers, and they care about the books they read.

Kids often ask me if characters are real or made up - and I always tell them, 'I hope they're real but I made them up.'

Death is very mysterious to us. One moment someone is there with us, and the next moment they're not.

Fear follows crime and is its punishment.

Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.

Deep down, there is in the substance of the cosmos a primordial disposition, sui generis, for self-arrangement and self-involution.