If we say I love you, it may be received with doubt, for there are times when it is hard to believe. Say I hate you, and the one spoken to believes it instantly, once for all. ... Love must be learned, and learned again and again; there is no end to it. Hate needs no instruction, but waits only to be provoked.
Katherine Anne PorterFirst impressions are often signals from the deep that we should credit oftener than we do.
Katherine Anne PorterChildhood is the fiery furnace in which we are melted down to essentials and that essential shaped for good.
Katherine Anne PorterI have a great deal of religious symbolism in my stories because I have a very deep sense of religion and also I have a religious training. And I suppose you don't say, `I'm going to have the flowering judas tree stand for betrayal,' but of course it does.
Katherine Anne Porter