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.

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

Fear follows crime and is its punishment.

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