Kathryn Lasky Quotes

“They did not hear Grimble, as he lay dying, chant in the true voice of the Boreal Owl, in tones like chimes in the night, an ancient owl prayer, "I have redeemed myself by giving belief to the wings of the young. Blessed are those who believe, for indeed they shall fly."”

— Kathryn Lasky

“Flutter like a hummingbird,
Dive like an eagle,
Ain't no bird that's my equal.
- Twilight”

— Kathryn Lasky

“Very possible! Possible, indeed. Maybe even probable, which, as you know if you study your arithmetic,can happen more often than possible. In other words, probable is more possible than possible. - Bubo”

— Kathryn Lasky

“One creature's truth is another's lie. (Scroom of Strix Struma)”

— Kathryn Lasky

“Otulissa swelled up to twice her normal size. 'Well, SPRINK ON YOUR SPRONK!”

— Kathryn Lasky

Everything here at St. Aggie's is upside down and inside out. It's our job not to get moon blinked and to stand right side up in an upside down world. If we don't do that we'll never be able to escape. We'll never be able to think. And thinking is the only way we'll be able to plan an escape.
-Gylfie

— Kathryn Lasky

“What gives a wriggle
And makes you giggle
When you eat'em?
Whose weensy little feet
Make my heart really beat?
Why, it's those little creepy crawlies
That make me feel so jolly.
For the darling centipede
My favorite buggy feed
I always want some more.
That's the insect I adore
More than beetles, more than crickets,
Which at times gives me the hiccups.
I crave only to feed
On a juicy centipede
And I shall be happy forevermore.
-Soren”

— Kathryn Lasky

“Courage ... is fear holding on just a bit longer.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“He didn't know what he wanted. He only knew what he didn't want.”

— Kathryn Lasky

Words, as you well know, can be powerful. - Digger

— Kathryn Lasky

“Are you scared of going in to see the raghnaid [the council]?" asked a gray female pup.
"Are you cag mag [crazy]? If a bear was his Milk Giver, you think he's scared of the raghnaid?”

— Kathryn Lasky

“Why, if one were Queen, would one ever want to marry? If one is ruler, is it not better to both King and Queen? That is exactly what a woman can do if she remains without a mate.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“And if you can't imagine, nothing will ever happen.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“Every pellet has a story all its own.
Every pellet has a story all its own.
With its fur and teeth and bones
And one or two stones,
Every pellet has a story all its own.
We shall dissect every pellet with glee.
Perhaps we'll find a rodents knee.
And never shall we tire
In the sacred task that we conspire,
No do our work less perfectly
And those bright flecks at the core,
Which makes our hearts soar,
Shall forever remain the deepest mystery.
- The owlets in the Pelletorium at St. Aegolius”

— Kathryn Lasky

T is not faces, not color, not appearnces that matter. - Soren

— Kathryn Lasky

“I'll say whatever I want. I'm not a book. You can't burn me!”

— Kathryn Lasky

“She told them simply and directly that the meadow was a place of peace and beauty, where indeed if one came to it in a quiet manner, the animals would not be disturbed; for there are lovely birds, and squirrels and field mice, and sometimes deer.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“A spark can become a flame, a flame a fire.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“For Twilight, it was like the echo of a song- a song from long ago. He could almost remember some of the words, but had no clue as to where they had come from. There had been a wonderful voice singing it, singing this song just for him. A voice like silk? Satin? Like liquid moonlight, it flowed, it curled around him and suffused him with a glowing warmth.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“I am like glass to him, like water, Hannah thought to herself, alone now in the music room, heart racing. He sees through me, but how? Page: 97”

— Kathryn Lasky

“At the edge of the avalanche
At the glacier's icy rim
Grows the flower of the snowfields
Trembling in the wintry wind.
It dares to live in edges
Where naught else would ever grow.
So fragile, so unlikely
An owl slices through this blow.
She dares the katabats
Her gizzard madly quivers,
But for her dearest of friends
She vows she shall deliver.
Like the lily of the avalanche
The glacier's icy rose
Like a flower of the wind
The bright fierceness in her glows.
The bravest are the small
The weakest are the strong
The most fearful find the courage
To battle what is wrong.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“We are only as noble as our actions prove us to be.”

— Kathryn Lasky

We dug the asparagus, and tonight Aunt Charlotte cooked it for me herself with butter and melted cheese. I ate a whole plateful and drank half the brown jug of sweet milk. Then I had two slices of the thick coarse-grain bread that Aunt and the nuns make fresh every day.

— Kathryn Lasky

Death bears with it a stain that seeps into the hollow and fills the mind.

— Kathryn Lasky

“It dawned on her in that moment that what she had loved so much when she heard the harp's music and then began to play in the midst of the storm was this sense or suggestion of a place, a world without such rules. A place where boundaries simply did not exist, but living things moved freely, in a limitless space, and yet were still connected to everything in much the same way the harp's music enveloped all the people in the music room last night. Page: 159 - 160”

— Kathryn Lasky

URSKADAMUS TINE SMYORFIN MASACH!" Edme wasn't sure what to believe now - her ears or her eye? There was only one wolf who swore in both the language of bears and that of Old Wolf. "Faolan?" "Who else, for the love of Lupus? One would think you saw a ghost." "But with all that frost - you look like a lochin." Faolan gave a dismissive bark. "You should see yourself," Edme persisted. "You've got icicles hanging from your chin fur. Your belly fur looks as if it's ... " "I know! I know! I can feel it!" he replied crankily. "You look absolutely ancient. I mean older than the Sark." "Thanks a lot," Faolan huffed. "Well, what did you find?" "No meat." His voice dwindled.

— Kathryn Lasky

“No one is too small for anything. You just have to think big!”

— Kathryn Lasky

“My own brother. My very own brother is Metal Beak and he wants to kill me.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“No" was most definitely Faolan's favorite word. "No" and "More milk.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“The time has come,
The claws are passed.
An old owl rests,
A die's been cast.
It is a war for heart,
Gizzard and mind.
The weapons they wield,
More deadly than mine.
A blade draws blood, a fire burns.
But with the flecks, a mind unlearns.
A soul unhinges,
And then a gizzard quakes and cringes.
Senses dull,
Reason scatters.
The heart grows numb,
An owl shatters.
But these six owls are strong and bold,
And their story has not yet been told.”

— Kathryn Lasky

She did not want to say good-bye. She did not want to utter those two dead-sounding words. She turned to look at her taiga.
"It's never good-bye, Edme," said Winks. "It's merely slaan boladh."
"Slaan boladh?" Edme repeated.
"Old wolf for 'until the next scent post.'"
"Slaan boladh," Edme murmured, and turned and left the taiga to sleep.

— Kathryn Lasky

“I will go to the Ring of Sacred Volcanoes, but I shall go not as a member of the MacHeath clan - no, I shall go as a free runner. I reject you. I deny you, I refuse and repudiate you as my clan.”

— Kathryn Lasky

Never in a million years would I want to live at Versailles with Marie Antoinette or anybody else. I hate to tell you this but I did not even like visiting Versailles. I found it just too ornate. It was like a complete diet of cotton candy, marzipan, and whipped cream.

— Kathryn Lasky

I was actually very hesitant to write about Marie Antoinette. She seemed at first glance - well, I cannot think of any other term - an airhead of the first degree.

— Kathryn Lasky

“I treat all my characters as if they were real, and I am scrupulous about the details of their lives.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“I think the Lewis and Clark Expedition was the greatest undertaking in American History. I think landing a man on the moon pales next to it.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“Whether you are a twelve-year-old princess or a twelve-year-old regular kid, you need to know you are loved and respected.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“I have always been fascinated by paleontology and prehistoric people, and I've always thought that one of the most intriguing moments in human history was the birth of artistic imagination. I always loved those cave paintings.”

— Kathryn Lasky

I believe that reading widely is the best preparation for writing.

— Kathryn Lasky

I came from a home where everybody had a book.

— Kathryn Lasky

“In our community here in Boston, we have had a tremendous influx of Russian Jews and Haitians. We call these people immigrants. But they come for the same reasons that William Bradford and William Brewster and John Carver came.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“It is not a happy lot being a princess in any country, but especially Japan in which every tiny aspect of one's life is governed by the most rigid rules of protocol.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“When I was growing up I loved reading historical fiction, but too often it was about males; or, if it was about females, they were girls who were going to grow up to be famous like Betsy Ross, Clara Barton, or Harriet Tubman. No one ever wrote about plain, normal, everyday girls.”

— Kathryn Lasky

Manic depressive people often have incredible energy and a slightly skewed, but nonetheless valid, way of looking at things.

— Kathryn Lasky

“I did not find that writing a diary with a lead male character differed in any essential way from writing one with a female character. They all had the same challenges in terms of attempting to establish an identity, coping with loneliness, friendships, relationships.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“I am not saying that the Renaissance in any way was a feminist movement - hardly. But the arts flourished, and in more social settings as opposed to being confined to the church.”

— Kathryn Lasky

I can read a newspaper article, and it might trigger something else in my mind. I often like to choose in historical fiction things or subject matter I don't feel have been given a fair shake in history.

— Kathryn Lasky

“The tail of the comet slashed the dawn and in the red light of the rising sun, for a brief instant, it seemed as if the comet was bleeding across the sky.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“Cycling, cycling forever bear, wolf, caribou. When had it all started, where will it end? We are all part of one, from such simple beginnings and yet all so different. Yet one. One and again.”

— Kathryn Lasky

“Hail to St. Aegolius Our Alma Mater. Hail, our song we raise in praise of thee Long in the memory of every loyal owl Thy splendid banner emblazoned be. Now to thy golden talons Homage we're bringing. Guiding symbol of our hopes and fears Hark to the cries of eternal praises ringing Long may we triumph in the coming years. - The Owls of St. Aegolius”

— Kathryn Lasky