Patricia MacLachlan Quotes & Sayings

I wiped my hands on my apron and went to the window. Outside, the prairie reached out and touched the places where the sky came down. Though the winter was nearly over, there were patches of snow and ice everywhere. I looked at the long dirt road that crawled across the plains, remembering the morning that Mama had died, cruel and sunny. They had come for her in a wagon and taken her away to be buried. And then the cousins and aunts and uncles had come and tried to fill up the house. But they couldn't. — Patricia MacLachlan

sounds of Suzuki, — Patricia MacLachlan

In Moonlight
No
Soft sweet paw on my cheek
No
Fur curled under my chin
Just
A sad space left behind -
Gray cat gone away.

[Ellie's poem] — Patricia MacLachlan

I sing the songs I sang to you every night.
I sing them
so I will remember you,
hoping that you will remember me too,
even though I am here,
and you are there. — Patricia MacLachlan

I never work from an outline, and often I don't know how the story will end. — Patricia MacLachlan

There is always something to miss, no matter where you are. — Patricia MacLachlan

Sometimes you think you know more than you really do - people, events, things that are true and things that are not. Sometimes you think you know yourself. But then, surprise, it is someone else who shows you what is really there, like the truth a photograph shows. — Patricia MacLachlan

You have a story in there, Lucy," she said, touching my head. "Or a character, a place, a poem, a moment in time. When you find it, you will write it. Word after word after word after word," she whispered. — Patricia MacLachlan

Dogs speak words, but only poets and children Hear. — Patricia MacLachlan

My inspiration for writing is all the wonderful books that I read as a child and that I still read. I think that for those of us who write, when we find a wonderful book written by someone else, we don't really get jealous, we get inspired, and that's kind of the mark of what a good writer is. — Patricia MacLachlan

Life is made up of circles ... Life is not a straight line ... And sometimes we circle back to a past time. But we are not the same. We are changed forever. — Patricia MacLachlan

Tune, tune," said Porch briskly. He turned to Orson. "And is there a word for today?" Orson was the word person, spilling words out as if they were notes on a staff. "Rebarbative," said Orson promptly. "Causing annoyance or irritation. Mozart's rebarbative music causes me to want to throw up." Porch sighed. Orson preferred Schubert. — Patricia MacLachlan

more perfect than the moon — Patricia MacLachlan

Some words may make you happy, some may make you said. Maybe some will make you angry. What I hope ... what I hope is that something will whisper in your ear. — Patricia MacLachlan

My brother William is a fisherman, and he tells me that when he is in the middle of a fogbound
sea the water is a color for which there is no name. — Patricia MacLachlan

Sometimes poetry
words
give us a small, lovely look at ourselves. And sometimes that is enough. — Patricia MacLachlan

I will come by train. I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall. — Patricia MacLachlan

I have to write what I can write, and writing the text of a picture book is like walking a tightrope, if you ramble off ... As my friend Julius Lester says, 'A picture book is the essence of an experience.' — Patricia MacLachlan

I'm working on a bunch of things with my daughter Emily. In some ways, she's a smarter and better editor than I am. — Patricia MacLachlan

I have great respect for children. And I have great respect for their ability as writers. — Patricia MacLachlan

Each time I write a new piece, whether a novel, a picture book, a speech or anything, really, it has so much to do with what I'm going through personally or a problem I'm trying to work out. When I wrote my novel 'Baby,' my three children had all just gone out the door. — Patricia MacLachlan

Poets and children," said Sylvan. "We are the same really. When you can't find a poet, find a child. Remember that. — Patricia MacLachlan

I want most of all for you to forgive Grandfather. I want you to forgive Grandfather so I can grow up and be just like you. — Patricia MacLachlan

What is perfect? Journey, a thing doesn't have to be perfect to be fine. That goes for a picture. That goes for life ... Things can be good enough. — Patricia MacLachlan

Being married to a psychologist, I realize that I learn more from imperfections. — Patricia MacLachlan

All the world can be found in poetry. All you need to see and hear. All the moments, good and bad, joyous and sad. — Patricia MacLachlan

My greatest fear is being somewhere without a book. — Patricia MacLachlan

My mother, as a girl, had remembered this woman from Maine, someone who was part of the extended family somehow, and I recall her talking about this great, risk-taking woman. There are the most amazing, heroic stories in everybody's lives. — Patricia MacLachlan

Sometimes, what people choose to write down on paper is more important than what they say.
Caleb didn't know what Sarah meant. But I knew. I wrote in my journal every night. And when I read what I had written, I could see myself there, clearer than when I looked in the mirror. I could see all of us: Papa, who couldn't always say the things he felt; Caleb, who said everything; and Sarah, who didn't know that she had changed us all. — Patricia MacLachlan

I think what happens is you write how you grew up. And I was born on the prairie, and so everything is kind of spare on the prairie. And so I'm just used to writing in that way. 'Sarah, Plain and Tall' was that way. And most of my fiction is. I like writing small pieces. Somehow it just suits me. — Patricia MacLachlan

I have great editors, and I always have. Somehow, great editors ask the right questions or pose things to you that get you to write better. It's a dance between you, your characters, and your editor. — Patricia MacLachlan

In a way, my childhood was one long bunch of pages ... I read and read and read. — Patricia MacLachlan

Looking back, I see that I write books about brothers and sisters, about what makes up a family, what works and what is nurturing. — Patricia MacLachlan

I love to talk to children about making mistakes. It's important that I tell them about how I don't get it right the first time. We live in such a perfectionist society, and they see so many finished products and polished performances. — Patricia MacLachlan

It's WA today, Minna," called Orson from across the room, Orson's name for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Orson played second violin with a sloppy serenity, rolling his eyes and sticking out his tongue, his bowing long and sweeping and beautiful even when out of tune. "If you must make a mistake," he had quoted, "make it a big one." Was it Heifetz who had said it? Perlman? Zukerman maybe? — Patricia MacLachlan

There are always things to miss," said Maggie. "No matter where you are. — Patricia MacLachlan

Writing... is ... brave. You are brave. — Patricia MacLachlan

I, myself, write to change my life, to make it come out the way I want it to. But other people write for other reasons: to see more closely what it is they are thinking about, what they may be afraid of. Sometimes writers write to solve a problem, to answer their own question. All these reasons are good reasons. And that is the most important thing I'll ever tell you. Maybe it is the most important thing you'll ever hear. Ever. — Patricia MacLachlan

I think it's important to remember where I began. I know that when I talk to other writers, say, writers from the South or writers from abroad, it's where they begin as children that is important to them. — Patricia MacLachlan

You will have a story in there ... or a character, a place, a poem, a moment in time. When you find it, you will write it. Word after word after word after word. — Patricia MacLachlan

I can always tell when I'm about to start writing. I go through cycles in reading. When I'm beginning to start to write something, I start reading what I think of as good literature. I read things with wonderful language. — Patricia MacLachlan

Fact and fiction are different truths. — Patricia MacLachlan

Byrd: It is important because we are giving her something to take away with her when she goes.
Lalo: What will she take with her?
Byrd: Us.
Sophie: And what will we have when she's gone?
Byrd looked at Sophie and shook her head because she couldn't speak — Patricia MacLachlan

There are some things for which there are no answers, no matter how beautiful the words may be. — Patricia MacLachlan

This is important to writing ... that is, it is important to my own writing. This ... is landscape! Mine. This dirt came from the prairie where I was a child. I played in it, dug in it, planted in it, and walked over it. It is where I began. And all my writing begins with a landscape such as this. A place. — Patricia MacLachlan

Sadness is
Steam rising
Tears falling
A breath you take in
But can't let out
As hard as you try. — Patricia MacLachlan

Life is made up of circles. — Patricia MacLachlan