Kathe Quotes & Sayings

You see, that hunger inside us, that ambition, or whatever you may choose to call it, is a compass really, a compass of true desire. And if you will be happy, you must follow that desire, no matter which way the needle points. — Kathe Koja

My work is not, of course, pure art in the sense that Schmidt-Rottluff's is, but it is art nonetheless ... It is all right with me that my work serves a purpose. I want to have an effect on my time, in which human beings are so confused and in need of help. — Kathe Kollwitz

The stage is not only a world apart, it is a myriad of worlds, and in those worlds a man can have anything he fancies, if only he believes in what he sees. — Kathe Koja

How long were the stretches of toilsome tacking back and forth, of being blocked, of being thrown back again and again. But all that was annulled by the periods when I had my technique in hand and succeeded in doing what I wanted. — Kathe Kollwitz

Recalling those gone times, old memories lit by the fire of the new, I did not this time wonder how long it would last; I was too smart for that now. Take what you get, and don't think. Of course it could never be that easy, but there were moments, like now, that I could successfully pretend that it was, and I had no inclination to try to peer past those moments. I'm not one who wants to know the future: at the best it spoils the present, with longing or dismay, and at the worst, well. Who really wants to find out how tight the sling is, for your own very personal ass, who wants to know how deep the shit will really be. Not you. Not me either. Because it's rarely bliss saved up, is it, when you finally get there. I'll take my now, waking with a lover's scent on me, around me, take my hopes before they're maybe tragedy; a good morning is a good morning, even if it leads to apocalypse at night. — Kathe Koja

It seems to me nowadays that the most important task for someone who is aging is to spread love and warmth whenever possible. — Kathe Kollwitz

Where do all the women who have watched so carefully over the lives of their beloved ones get the heroism to send them to face the cannon? — Kathe Kollwitz

For me the Koenigsberg longshoremen had beauty; the Polish jimkes on their grain ships had beauty; the broad freedom of movement in the gestures of the common people had beauty. Middle-class people held no appeal for me at all. — Kathe Kollwitz

Culture arises only when the individual fulfills his cycle of obligations. If everyone recognizes and fulfills his cycle of obligations, genuineness emerges. The culture of a whole nation can in the final analysis be built upon nothing else. — Kathe Kollwitz

Genius can probably run on ahead and seek out new ways. But the good artists who follow after genius - and I count myself among these - have to restore the lost connection once more. — Kathe Kollwitz

Look at life with the eyes of a child. — Kathe Kollwitz

My writing process hasn't changed - it's is the same whether I'm working on a Y.A. novel or, as now, a new novel for adults. A lot of reading, a lot of research if the subject warrants it, a lot of sticky notes and scraps of paper - and get to work. — Kathe Koja

I thought I was a revolutionary and was only an evolutionary. — Kathe Kollwitz

I used to send my characters into a fire that necessarily consumed them, but I have learned, a little, how to send them through the fire to a new place. The characters who do not change - most notably Nakota in Cipher, Bibi in Skin, and Lena in Kink - are motivated by an essential selfishness or self-centeredness, an unwillingness to relinquish control to the process, a refusal to become. — Kathe Koja

'Alice in Wonderland' has been done a million times; why do it again? Nerve's answer is that Alice is Everyman and Everywoman, going through the stages of life. — Kathe Koja

I can always paint very well with my eyes, but with my hands it doesn't always work out. — Kathe Kollwitz

I have one rule when adapting any text: nothing gets added; all the words are the original author's own. But in the ordering and recreation of the story, I can do as I please, and to me, the heart and the point of 'Dracula' is appetite. — Kathe Koja

The development of the national spirit in its present form leads into blind alleys. Some condition must be found which preserves the life of the nation, but rules out the fatal rivalry among nations. — Kathe Kollwitz

I am in the world to change the world — Kathe Kollwitz

No longer diverted by other emotions, I work the way a cow grazes. — Kathe Kollwitz

If there is any God in this world, He lives in a theatre. — Kathe Koja

There are moments on most days when I feel a deep and sincere gratitude, when I sit at the open window, and there is a blue sky or moving clouds. — Kathe Kollwitz

I knew that change was coming, the way you know things you can't see, by feeling them; by instinct. The way the bees know everything they know. — Kathe Koja

To work and work and never mind why; if you kept looking for the why behind everything you might never work again, you might never bother to breathe again. — Kathe Koja

I am afraid of dying-but being dead, oh yes, that to me is often an appealing prospect. — Kathe Kollwitz

'Under the Poppy' is the love story of Istvan and Rupert, lovers and friends from childhood, who've been parted by jealousy - and a secret betrayal by Istvan's sister, Decca, who also loves Rupert, with whom she runs the brothel called Under the Poppy, where the floozies cater to every taste from saucy to peculiar. — Kathe Koja

Even an empty road leads somewhere, right? — Kathe Koja

To this day I do not know whether the power which has inspired my works is something related to religion, or is indeed religion itself. — Kathe Kollwitz

Y.A. wasn't really a specific genre when I was fifteen, but if it was, I would probably have shunned it; I was a huge snob. — Kathe Koja

Every war carries within it the war which will answer it. Every war is answered by a new war, until everything, everything is smashed. — Kathe Kollwitz

If all the people who have been hurt by the war were to exclude joy from their lives, it would almost be as if they had died. — Kathe Kollwitz

Growing old is partly an inescapable process of accommodation and adjustment. — Kathe Kollwitz

It is my duty to voice the sufferings of humankind, the never-ending sufferings heaped mountain high. This is my task, but it is not an easy one to fulfill. — Kathe Kollwitz

I'm just going to jump and say:hey Mom, Dad, I'm gay, What's for dessert? — Kathe Koja

I never consciously choose what I'm going to work on next; I don't have an agenda beyond that attraction. Fortunately, my wonderful agent, Christopher Schelling, knows how I think and points me toward things I might like, which is how I started writing Y.A. — Kathe Koja

People react differently to puppets than they do to human performers: they become more playful, more open. — Kathe Koja

I want to cultivate the seed that was placed in me until the last small twig has grown. — Kathe Kollwitz

Darkness might seem to obscure what's happening, but I find it's always pretty revelatory: it brings out the awe in us, the fear in us, the excitement of exploring the hidden or unknown. It seems to conceal, but it really shines a light on what we want, what we need, and what we'll do to get it. Especially when we think no one can see us. — Kathe Koja

If I could have broken his neck I would have, just for the pleasure of the silence after the snap. — Kathe Koja

Old ideas die hard. We've had thousands of years of women having almost no rights. Parts of the world are in a struggle toward very basic human rights for women, and most of the world isn't even there yet. And it's going to take a long time to change these attitudes. — Kathe Kollwitz

[Lindsay] But I don't want to think about all that now, Boring Blake and his broken heart which is really his deflated dick, that's all he cares about anyway... — Kathe Koja

When Michelangelo was an old man, he drew himself sitting in a child's pushcart. — Kathe Kollwitz

Men without joy seem like corpses. — Kathe Kollwitz

Recently I began reading my old diaries. Back to before the war. Gradually I became very depressed. The reason for that is probably that I wrote only when there were obstacles and halts to the flow of life, seldom when everything was smooth and even ... As I read I distinctly felt what a half-truth a diary presents. — Kathe Kollwitz

The verge, he likes to say. That's where we want them, the utter, utter verge. — Kathe Koja

It is my duty to voice the suffering of men, the never-ending sufferings heaped mountain-high. — Kathe Kollwitz

While I drew, and wept along with the terrified children I was drawing, I really felt the burden I am bearing. I felt that I have no right to withdraw from the responsibility of being an advocate. — Kathe Kollwitz

As in everything else, I find that age is not good for much, that one becomes deafer and less sensitive. Also, the higher up the mountain you climb, the less of a view you get. A mist closes in and cheats you of the hoped-for and expected opportunity to see far and wide ... — Kathe Kollwitz

Bisexuality is almost a necessary factor in artistic production; at any rate, the tinge of masculinity within me helped me in my work. — Kathe Kollwitz

One day, a new ideal will arise, and there will be an end to all wars. I die convinced of this. It will need much hard work, but it will be achieved... The important thing, until that happens, is to hold one's banner high and to struggle... Without struggle there is no life. — Kathe Kollwitz

I was put in this world to change it. — Kathe Kollwitz

I don't think kids have a problem reading books meant for adults; the problem is on the other side of the fence, a misconception of what one kind of literature is 'supposed' to be, perceived to be, as opposed to another: if it's for kids, it can't be any good; it's got to have been dumbed down and/or sweetened up. — Kathe Koja