Katherine Anne Porter Quotes

A collection of quotes by Katherine Anne Porter.

Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) was an acclaimed American writer known for her vivid storytelling and insightful portrayals of human nature. Born in Indian Creek, Texas, she faced a troubled childhood marked by poverty and family hardships. At the age of 16, Porter eloped with her first husband, but the marriage proved short-lived due to his alcoholism and abuse. These early struggles greatly influenced her later literary works.

Porter began her writing career as a journalist, contributing to various publications and working as a theater critic in Denver and Chicago. She later moved to New York City, where she immersed herself in the vibrant literary scene of the 1920s. Porter's most renowned works include her collection of short stories, "Flowering Judas and Other Stories" (1930), which explored themes of betrayal, morality, and social injustice.

Her talent for storytelling earned her critical acclaim and several prestigious honors, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1966 for her novel "The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter." She was known for her meticulous attention to detail and her ability to capture the complex emotions of her characters.

While Porter's literary output was relatively small, her impactful works continue to be celebrated for their insightful exploration of the human condition. Her writings often delve into themes of love, loss, and the constant search for meaning in a rapidly changing world. Katherine Anne Porter remains a significant figure in American literature, leaving behind a profound and enduring literary legacy.

The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, ev

The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, even one's own --even more, one's own, for that has been put in our care and we are responsible for its well-being.

Katherine Anne Porter

I shall try to tell the truth, but the result will be fictio

I shall try to tell the truth, but the result will be fiction.

Katherine Anne Porter

Experience is what really happens to you in the long run; th

Experience is what really happens to you in the long run; the truth that finally overtakes you.

Katherine Anne Porter

Experience Truth

It is such a relief to be told the truth.

It is such a relief to be told the truth.

Katherine Anne Porter

One of the marks of a gift is to have the courage of it.

One of the marks of a gift is to have the courage of it.

Katherine Anne Porter

You can't write about people out of textbooks, and you can't

You can't write about people out of textbooks, and you can't use jargon. You have to speak clearly and simply and purely in a language that a six-year-old child can understand; and yet have the meanings and the overtones of language, and the implications, that appeal to the highest intelligence.

Katherine Anne Porter

There seems to be a kind of order in the universe, in the mo

There seems to be a kind of order in the universe, in the movement of the stars and the turning of the earth and the changing of the seasons, and even in the cycle of human life. But human life itself is almost pure chaos. Everyone takes his stance, asserts his own rights and feelings, mistaking the motives of others, and his own.

Katherine Anne Porter

They had both noticed that a life of dissipation sometimes g

They had both noticed that a life of dissipation sometimes gave to a face the look of gaunt suffering spirituality that a life of asceticism was supposed to give and quite often did not.

Katherine Anne Porter

I have not much interest in anyone's personal history after

I have not much interest in anyone's personal history after the tenth year, not even my own. Whatever one was going to be was all prepared before that.

Katherine Anne Porter

Our being is subject to all the chances of life. There are s

Our being is subject to all the chances of life. There are so many things we are capable of, that we could be or do. The potentialities are so great that we never, any of us, are more than one-fourth fulfilled.

Katherine Anne Porter

A cultivated style would be like a mask. Everybody knows it'

A cultivated style would be like a mask. Everybody knows it's a mask, and sooner or later you must show yourself -- or at least, you show yourself as someone who could not afford to show himself, and so created something to hide behind. You do not create a style. You work, and develop yourself; your style is an emanation from your own being.

Katherine Anne Porter

It is a man's world, and you men can have it.

It is a man's world, and you men can have it.

Katherine Anne Porter

I don't want any promises, I won't have false hopes, I won't

I don't want any promises, I won't have false hopes, I won't be romantic about myself. I can't live in their world any longer, she told herself, listening to the voices back of her. Let them tell their stories to each other. Let them go on explaining how things happened. I don't care. At least I can know the truth about what happens to me, she assured herself silently, making a promise to herself, in her hopefulness, her ignorance.

Katherine Anne Porter

Human life itself may be almost pure chaos, but the work of

Human life itself may be almost pure chaos, but the work of the artist is to take these handfuls of confusion and disparate things, things that seem to be irreconcilable, and put them together in a frame to give them some kind of shape and meaning.

Katherine Anne Porter

The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, ev

The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, even one's own even more, one's own, for that has been put in our care and we are responsible for its well-being.

Katherine Anne Porter