Philip Pullman quotes

That's the duty of the old,” said the Librarian, "to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old. (Philip Pullman)
Argue with anything else, but don't argue with your own nature. View quote
Philip Pullman
We are all subject to the fates. But we must all act as if we are not,” said the witch, "or die of despair. View quote
Philip Pullman
We don't need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. is soon forgotten, butlasts forever. View quote
Philip Pullman
Everything has a meaning, if only we could read it. View quote
Philip Pullman
If you can't think of what to write, tough luck; write anyway. If you can think of lots more when you've finished the three pages, don't write it; it'll be that much easier to get going next day. View quote
Philip Pullman
You cannot change what you are, only what you do. View quote
Philip Pullman
For a human being, nothing comes naturally,” said Grumman. "We have to learn everything we do. View quote
Philip Pullman
It does not make sense. It cannot exist. It's impossible, and if it isn't impossible, it's irrelevant, and if it isn't either of those things, it's embarrassing. View quote
Philip Pullman
The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake. View quote
Philip Pullman
Think of Adam and Eve like an imaginary number, like the square root of minus one: you can never see any concrete proof that it exists, but if you include it in your equations, you can calculate all manner of things that couldn't be imagined without it. (Philip Pullman)
Do not lie to the Scholar. View quote
Philip Pullman
Both the Oblation Board and the Specters of Indifference are bewitched by this truth about human beings: that innocence is different from experience. The Oblation Board fears and hates Dust, and the Specters feast on it, but it's Dust both of them are obsessed by. View quote
Philip Pullman
Even if it means oblivion, friends, I'll welcome it, because it won't be nothing. We'll be alive again in a thousand blades of grass, and a million leaves; we'll be falling in the raindrops and blowing in the fresh breeze; we'll be glittering in the dew under the stars and the moon out there in the physical world, which is our true home and always was. View quote
Philip Pullman
And then what?" said her Dæmon sleepily "build what?" "The Republic of Heaven. View quote
Philip Pullman
Will considered what to do. When you choose one way out of many, all the ways you don't take are snuffed out like candles, as if they'd never existed. At the moment all Will's choices existed at once. But to keep them all in existence meant doing nothing. He had to choose, after all. View quote
Philip Pullman
"That light," said the Chaplain, "is it going up or coming down?" "It's coming down," said Lord Asriel, "but it isn't light. It's Dust." Something in the way he said it made Lyra imagine dust with a capital letter, as if this wasn't ordinary dust. The reaction of the Scholars confirmed her feeling, because Lord Asriel's words caused a sudden collective silence, followed by gasps of incredulity. View quote
Philip Pullman
I have stolen ideas from every book I have ever read. My principle in researching a novel is 'Read like a butterfly, write like a bee', and if this story contains any honey, it is entirely because of the quality of the nectar I found in the work of better writers. View quote
Philip Pullman
I will love you for ever, whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead I'll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again... View quote
Philip Pullman
Human beings can't see anything without wanting to destroy it. That's original sin. And I'm going to destroy it. Death is going to die. View quote
Philip Pullman
Lonely? I don't know. They tell me this is cold. I don't know what cold is, because I don't freeze. So I don't know what lonely means either. Bears are made to be solitary. (Philip Pullman)
Stories are the most important thing in the world. Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all. View quote
Philip Pullman
No,' he said, 'memory's a poor thing to have. It's your own real hair and mouth and arms and eyes and hands I want. I didn't know I could ever love anything so much... View quote
Philip Pullman
... because where we are is always the most important place. View quote
Philip Pullman
One moment several things are possible, the next moment only one happens, and the rest don't exist. Except that other worlds have sprung into being, on which the did happen. View quote
Philip Pullman