Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
There will be days when the stuff is not flowing freely. What you do then is MAKE IT UP!
Just sort of relax your mind and say yes, it does hurt, I know. Don't try and shut it out.
'Thou shalt not' might reach the head, but it takes 'Once upon a time' to reach the heart.
When you live for many hundreds of years, you know that every opportunity will come again.
We have to build the Republic of Heaven where we are, because for us there is no elsewhere.
And then what?" said her daemon sleepily. "Build what?" "The Republic of Heaven," said Lyra.
You'll drift apart, it's true, but you'll be out in the open, part of everything alive again.
For a human being, nothing comes naturally,' said Grumman. 'We have to learn everything we do.
After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.
I am a strong believer in the tyranny, the dictatorship, the absolute authority of the writer.
If a nation allows its literary culture to die, it's a sign that it doesn't fundamentally care.
My parents tolerated me reading comics because they knew I was also reading 'proper' books, too.
But I know that all the things I do know are very small compared with the things that I don't know.
A professional writer is someone who writes just as well when they're not inspired as when they are.
She longed for cutlasses, pistols, and brandy; she had to make do with coffee, and pencils, and verbs.
It’s like having to make a choice: a blessing or a curse. The one thing you can’t do is choose neither.
Stories are the most important thing in the world. Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all.
Lee was too cool by nature to rage at fate; his manner was to raise an eyebrow and greet it laconically.
I'm with the Grimms on this: stories for young and old. You can't characterize them any better than that.
When it comes to telling children stories, they don’t need simple language. They need beautiful language.
You going to be a scientist when you grow up?” That sort of question deserved a blank stare, which it got.
Men and women are moved by tides much fiercer than you can imagine, and they sweep us all up into the current.
The best sort of activity is one that combines mental effort with sensuous delight. That's why I love drawing.
If there is a war to be fought, we don’t consider cost one of the factors in deciding whether or not to fight.
I tried writing out a plot with the second or third novel I wrote, and it was so boring, so desperately boring.
It should be a firmly established part of the curriculum that children should visit theatres and concert halls.
Trying to understand superstition rationally is like trying to pick up something made of wood by using a magnet.
I don't profess any religion; I don't think it's possible that there is a God.... My books are about killing God.
And think what worrying does: has anyone ever added a single hour to the length of his life by worrying about it?
We measure the value of a civilized society by the number of # libraries it opens, not the number it closes down.
Then she was pressing her little proud broken self against his face, as close as she could get, and then they died.
The arts are beyond price; they're beyond value. They're of incalculable worth in what it means to be a human being.
Iorek Byrnison: Can is not the same as must. Lyra Silvertongue: But if you must and you can, then there's no excuse.
Just finished 'Secrecy' - truly enthralling both as a love story and as a tale of suspense - but much more than both.
Long before writing, people were telling each other stories and the audiobook goes all the way back to that tradition.
So Lyra and her daemon turned away from the world they were born in, and looked toward the sun, and walked into the sky.
Make this the golden rule, the equivalent of the Hippocratic oath: Everything we ask a child to do should be worth doing.
I was born in Norwich in 1946, and educated in England, Zimbabwe, and Australia, before my family settled in North Wales.
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.
Tell them stories. They need the truth you must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories.
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.
There are some themes, some subjects, too large for adult fiction; they can only be dealt with adequately in a children's book.
One handy piece of equipment, which I recommend to any writer of fiction, is a set of Myriorama cards. I consult them frequently.
I don't know where my ideas come from, but I know where they come to. They come to my desk, and if I'm not there, they go away again.
There is another consequence of any belief in a single god, and that is that it is a very good excuse for people to behave very badly.
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.
A story, to me, has a particular sprite, like the angel of the spirit of that story - and it's my job to attend to what it wants to do.
Men pass in front of our eyes like butterflies, creatures of a brief season. We love them; they are brave, proud, beautiful, and clever.
Being in love was like China: you knew it was there, and no doubt it was very interesting, and some people went there, but I never would.
What I do say is that I can write verse, and that the writing of verse in strict form is the best possible training for writing good prose