Bridge to Terabithia Quotes

“It's like the smarter you are, the more things can scare you.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“You have to believe it and you hate it. I don't have to and I think it's beautiful.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“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, Bridge to Terabithia

“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, Bridge to Terabithia

“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, Bridge to Terabithia

“It was Leslie who had taken him from the cow pasture into Terabithia and turned him into a king. He had thought that was it. Wasn't king the best you could be? Now it occurred to him that perhaps Terabithia was like a castle where you came to be knighted. After you stayed for a while and grew strong you had to move on. For hadn't Leslie, even in Terabithia, tried to push back the walls of his mind and make him see beyond to the shining world—huge and terrible and beautiful and very fragile? (Handle with care—everything—even the predators.)

Now it was time for him to move out. She wasn't there, so he must go for both of them. It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength.

As for the terrors ahead—for he did not fool himself that they were all behind him—well, you just have to stand up to your fear and not let it squeeze you white. Right, Leslie?

Right.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“You never know ahead of time what something's really going to be like.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“Shh," he said. "Look."
"Where?"
"Can't you see'um?" he whispered. "All the Terabithians standing on tiptoe to see you."
"Me?"
"Shh, yes. There's a rumor going around that the beautiful girl arrving today might be the queen they've been waiting for.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“You think it's so great to die and make everyone cry and carry on. Well it ain't.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“Everybody gets scared sometimes, May Belle. You don't have to be ashamed.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

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

“Just close your eyes and keep your mind wide open.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“When my husband died, people kept telling me not to cry. People kept trying to help me to forget. But I didn't want to forget... So I realize, that if it's hard for me, how much harder it must be for you.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“We need a place," she said, "just for us. It would be so secret that we would never tell anyone in the whole world about it." ... She lowered her voice almost to a whisper. "It might be a whole secret country," she continued, "and you and I would be the rulers of it.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“You're the proverbial diamond in the rough.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“It wasn't so much that he minded telling Leslie that he was afraid to go; it was that he minded being afraid. It was as though he had been made with a great piece missing - one of May Belle's puzzles with this huge gap where somebody's eye should have been. Lord, it would be better to be born without an arm than to go through life with no guts.”
― Katherine Paterson, Puente Hasta Terabithia

“That was the rule that you never mixed up troubles at home with life at school. When parents were poor or ignorant or mean, or even just didn't believe in having a TV set, it was up to their kids to protect them.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“It's crazy isn't it?" She shook her head. "You have to believe it, but you hate it. I don't have to believe it, and I think it's beautiful." She shook her head again. "It's crazy.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“Sitting in cold wet britches for an hour was no fun even in a magic kingdom.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“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, Bridge to Terabithia

“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, Bridge to Terabithia

“. . . 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, Bridge to Terabithia

“Leslie was one of those people who sat quietly at her desk, never whispering or daydreaming or chewing gum, doing beautiful schoolwork, and yet her brain was so full of mischief that if the teacher could have once seen through that mask of perfection, she would have thrown her out in horror.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“Ain't 'cha gonna run?" she asked.
"No," he said, shoving the sheet away. "I'm gonna fly.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“Someday, when he was good enough, he would ask her to write them in a book and let him do all the pictures.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“Impressed. Lord. He had nearly drowned.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“The last dregs of winter spoiling the taste of everything.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“Gee, I’m really glad I came.”
Jess turned to Leslie in unbelief.
“It was better than a movie.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No, I’m not.” And she wasn’t. He could tell by her face. “That whole Jesus thing is really interesting, isn’t it?”
“What d’you mean?”
“All those people wanting to kill him when he hadn’t done anything to hurt them.” She hesitated. “It’s really kind of a beautiful story—like Abraham Lincoln or Socrates—or Aslan.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“—Qué va. —Hablaba en serio. Jess lo supo por su mirada—. Toda esa historia de Jesús es realmente interesante, ¿no te parece?
—¿Qué quieres decir?
—Toda aquella gente que quiso matarle sin que él les hubiera hecho nada.
Vaciló. De verdad que era una historia preciosa: como la de Abraham Lincoln o Sócrates o Aslan.
—No tiene nada de hermosa —interrumpió May Belle—. Da miedo eso de hacer agujeros en las manos de alguien.
—Tienes razón, May Belle. —Jess buscó en las profundidades de su mente—. Dios hizo que Jesús muriera porque nosotros somos unos miserables pecadores.
—¿Crees que eso es verdad?
Se quedó atónito.
—Lo dice la Biblia, Leslie.
Le miró como si estuviera dispuesta a ponerse a discutir con él, pero luego pareció cambiar de opinión.
—Qué locura, ¿verdad? —Leslie sacudió la cabeza—. Tú que tienes que creer en la Biblia, la odias. Y yo, que no tengo que creerla, la encuentro preciosa. —Volvió a sacudir la cabeza—. Es cosa de locos.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia

“Jess drew the way some people drink whiskey. The peace would start at the top of his muddled brain and seep down through his tired and tensed-up body.”
― Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia