Quotes by Philip Pullman

“Im working on another Lyra book right now its called The Book of Dust.Its going very well and it will be finished when I write the words The End.”

“The evening sky was awash with peach, apricot, cream: tender little ice-cream clouds in a wide orange sky.”

“What work do I have to do then?" said Will, but went on at once, "No, on second thought, don't tell me. I shall decide what I do. If you say my work is fighting, or healing, or exploring, or whatev...”

“she allowed herself to dwell on the cause of this strange, apprehensive exultation that she sensed flickering at the edge of her mind: it was the rarest thing of all - a man whom she knew at once, ...”

“Princess, princess, youngest daughter,Open up and let me in!Or else your promise by the waterIsnt worth a rusty pin.Keep your promise, royal daughter,Open up and let me in!”

“The fairy tale is in a perpetual state of becoming and alteration. To keep to one version or one translation alone is to put robin redbreast in a cage.”

“If a coin comes down heads, that means that the possibility of its coming down tails has collapsed. Until that moment the two possibilities were equal. But on another world, it does come down tails...”

“I shall decide what I do. If you say my work is fighting, or healing, or exploring, or whatever you say, I'll always be thinking about it, and if I end up doing that, I'll feel resentful because it...”

“Tell them stories.”

“You are dead- what am I speaking to?”

“When we were alive, they told us that when we died we'd go to heaven. And they said that heaven was a place of joy and glory and we would spend eternity in the company of saints and angels praising...”

“I don't like rats any more than the next bloke, but they ain't wicked and cruel like people can be. They're just ratty in their habits.”

“We measure the value of a civilized society by the number of Libraries it opens, not the number it closes down.”

“We don’t need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don’ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever.”

“If you want something you can have it, but only if you want everything that goes with it, including all the hard work and the despair, and only if you're willing to risk failure.”

“That’s the duty of the old, to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.”

“You don't win races by wishing, you win them by running faster than everyone else does.”

“This is what’ll happen,” she said, “and it’s true, perfectly true. When you go out of here, all the particles that make you up will loosen and float apart, just like your daemons did. If you’ve see...”

“Lyra learns to her great cost that fantasy isn’t enough. She has been lying all her life, telling stories to people, making up fantasies, and suddenly she comes to a point where that’s not enough. ...”

“I can’t bear the thought of oblivion, Asriel,” she continued. “Sooner anything than that. I used to think pain would be worse—to be tortured forever—I thought that must be worse . . . But as long a...”