Katherine Paterson - Bridge to Terabithia (1977)

19 Sourced Quotes

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It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength.

Katherine Paterson
It's like the smarter you are, the more things can scare you.

Katherine Paterson
Jess believed, that she thought he was the best. It was not the kind of best that counted either at school or at home, but it was a genuine kind of best. He kept the knowledge of it buried inside himself like a pirate treasure. He was rich, very rich, but no one could know about it for now except his fellow outlaw, Julia Edmunds.

Katherine Paterson
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.

Katherine Paterson
Lord, it would be better to be born without an arm than to go through life with no guts.

Katherine Paterson
He may not have been born with guts, but he didn't have to die without them.

Katherine Paterson
Sometimes it seemed to him that his life was delicate as a dandelion. One little puff from any direction, and it was blown to bits.

Katherine Paterson
Miss Edmunds was one of his secrets. He was in love with her. Not the kind of silly stuff Ellie and Brenda giggled about on the telephone. This was too real and too deep to talk about, even to think about very much.

Katherine Paterson
Church always seemed the same. Jess could tune it out the same way he tuned out school, with his body standing up and sitting down in unison with the rest of the congregation but his mind numb and floating, not really thinking or dreaming but at least free.

Katherine Paterson
You never know ahead of time what something's really going to be like.

Katherine Paterson
When Leslie spoke, the words rolled out so regally, you knew she was a proper queen. He could hardly manage English, much less the poetic language of a king.

Katherine Paterson
We're alike, Jess would tell himself, me and Miss Edmunds... We don't belong at Lark Creek, Julia and me.

Katherine Paterson
He felt there in the teachers' room that it was the beginning of a new season in his life, and he chose deliberately to make it so. He did not have to make any announcement to Leslie that he had changed his mind about her. She already knew it.

Katherine Paterson
"Why don't we change our clothes and watch TV or something over at your house?" He felt like hugging her. "I'll make us some coffee," he said joyfully. "Yuk," she said smiling and began to run for the old Perkins place, that beautiful, graceful run of hers that neither mud nor water could defeat.

Katherine Paterson
She just took off running to the old Perkins place. He couldn't help turning to watch. She ran as though it was her nature. It reminded him of the flight of wild ducks in the autumn. So smooth. The word "beautiful" came to his mind, but he shook it away and hurried up to his house.

Katherine Paterson
He was angry, too, because it would soon be Christmas and he had nothing to give Leslie. It was not that she would expect something expensive; it was that he needed to give her something as much as he needed to eat when he was hungry. [...] She wouldn't laugh at him no matter what he gave her. But for his own sake he had to give her something he could be proud of.

Katherine Paterson
Sitting in cold wet britches for an hour was no fun even in a magic kingdom.

Katherine Paterson
Everybody gets scared sometimes, May Belle. You don't have to be ashamed.

Katherine Paterson
You think it's so great to die and make everyone cry and carry on. Well it ain't.

Katherine Paterson