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Philip Pullman Quotes
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Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English novelist. He is the author of several best-selling books, most notably the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials and the fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. In 2008, The Times named Pullman one of the "50 greatest British writers since 1945". In a 2004 poll for the BBC, Pullman was named the eleventh most influential person in British culture.

The first book of Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, Northern Lights, won the 1995 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's outstanding English-language children's book. For the 70th anniversary of the Medal it was named one of the top ten winning works by a panel, composing the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite. It won the public vote from that shortlist and was thus named the all-time "Carnegie of Carnegies" in June 2007. It has been adapted as a film under its U.S. title, The Golden Compass.

✵ 19. October 1946   •   Other names فیلیپ پولمن, Ֆիլիպ Պուլլման
Philip Pullman photo
Philip Pullman: 161   quotes 9   likes

Philip Pullman Quotes

“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 His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995), Ch. 21 : Lord Asriel's Welcome

Imagination , Thinking

“The first ghosts trembled with hope, and their excitement passed back like a ripple over the long line behind them, young children and aged parents alike looking up and ahead with delight and wonder as the first stars they had seen for centuries shone through into their poor starved eyes.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 26 : The Abyss

Children , Age , Hope , Star

“Nobody has to read this book. Nobody has to pick it up. Nobody has to open it. And if they open it and read it, they don't have to like it. And if you read it and you dislike it, you don't have to remain silent about it. You can write to me, you can complain about it, you can write to the publisher, you can write to the papers, you can write your own book. You can do all those things, but there your rights stop. No one has the right to stop me writing this book. No one has the right to stop it being published, or sold, or bought, or read.”

Philip Pullman book The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ3VcbAfd4w
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (2010)

Books , Reading

“What work have I got 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 whatever you might say, I'll always be thinking about it. And if I do end up doing that, I'll be resentful because it’ll feel as if I didn’t have a choice, and if I don’t do it, I'll feel guilty because I should. Whatever I do, I will choose it, no one else.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

“Then you have already taken the first steps toward wisdom,” said Xaphania.
Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 37 : The Dunes

Wisdom , Feeling , Thinking , Fight

“Dark matter is what my research team is looking for. No one knows what it is. There's more stuff out there in the universe than we can see, that's the point. We can see the stars and the galaxies and the things that shine, but for it all to hang together and not fly apart, there needs to be a lot more of it — to make gravity work, you see. But no one can detect it. So there are lots of different research projects trying to find out what it is, and this is one of them. … We think it's some kind of elementary particle. Something quite different from anything discovered so far. But the particles are very hard to detect.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Dr. Mary Malone, in Ch. 4 : Trepanning
His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997)

Star , Thinking , Universe , Flying

“Lyra has a part to play in all this, and a major one. The irony is that she must do it all without realizing what she's doing. She can be helped, though, and if my plan with the Tokay had succeeded, she would have been safe for a little longer. I would have liked to spare her a journey to the North.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

The Master to the Librarian, in Ch. 2 : The Idea of North
His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995)

Help , Parting

“She soon found the door the alethiometer had told her about. The sign on it said DARK MATTER RESEARCH UNIT, and under it someone had scribbled R. I. P. Another hand had added in pencil DIRECTOR: LAZARUS.
Lyra made nothing of that. She knocked, and a woman's voice said, "Come in."”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997), Ch. 4 : Trepanning

“Do not lie to the Scholar.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

The alethiometer to Lyra, in Ch. 4 : Trepanning
His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997)

Lie

“The lizard dragged the priest’s body back to her nest, and her children feasted very well. As for the rifle, it lay in the grass where Father Gomez had laid it down, quietly turning to rust.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 36 : The Broken Arrow

Children , Grass

“When you look at organised religion of whatever sort — whether it's Christianity in all its variants, or whether it's Islam or some forms of extreme Hinduism — wherever you see organised religion and priesthoods and power, you see cruelty and tyranny and repression. It's almost a universal law.”

Philip Pullman

Surefish interview (2002)

Religion , Law , Universe

“Lyra and her dæmon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

First line, introducing Lyra Belacqua (also known as Lyra Silvertongue), in Ch. 1 : The Decanter of Tokay
His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995)

“Without their tiger gods, the tribe declined into fear and melancholy and begged her to allow them to worship her instead, only to be rejected with contempt; for what good would their worship do her? she asked. It had done nothing for the tigers.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997), Ch. 2 : The Witches

God , Fear

“But as the wave expended its force and the waters withdrew, the bleak rocks remained; there was no arguing with fate; neither his despair nor Lyra’s had moved them a single inch.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 37 : The Dunes

Fate , Water , Despair

“How can I just go and sit in the library or somewhere and twiddle my thumbs, knowing what's going to happen? I don't intend to do that, I promise you.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Lyra, in Ch. 1 : The Decanter of Tokay
His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995)

“You said I was a warrior. You told me that was my nature, and I shouldn’t argue with it. Father, you were wrong. I fought because I had to. I can’t choose my nature, but I can choose what I do. And I will choose, because now I'm free.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 31 : Authority's End

Nature

“I hold the subtle knife on behalf of the Guild.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Giacomo Paradisi in Ch. 8 : The Tower of the Angels
His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997)

“Her dæmon's name was Pantalaimon, and he was currently in the form of a moth, a dark brown one so as not to show up in the darkness of the hall.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Introducing Pantalaimon, also called Pan, in Ch. 1 : The Decanter of Tokay
His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995)

““I wish…” she said, and stopped. There was nothing that could be gained by wishing for it. A final deep shaky breath, and she was ready to go on.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995), Ch. 23 : The Bridge to the Stars

““Doesn’t it scare you, having your death close by all the time?” said Lyra.
“Why ever would it? If he’s there, you can keep an eye on him. I'd be a lot more nervous not knowing where he was.””

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 19 : Lyra and her Death

Death , Time

“The Master of Jordan College is a foolish old man. Why he gave it to her I can't imagine; you need several years of intensive study to make any sense of it at all.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Mrs. Coulter, on Lyra having the alethiometer, in Ch. 9 : Theft
His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997)

Imagination , Sense , Study

“"But suppose your dæmon settles in a shape you don't like?"
"Well, then, you're discontented, en't you? There's plenty of fold as'd like to have a lion as a dæmon and they end up with a poodle. And till they learn to be satisfied with what they are, they're going to be fretful about it. Waste of feeling, that is."”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Lyra and the seaman Jerry, in Ch. 10 : The Consul and the Bear
His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995)

Feeling , Learning

“Who is this man who's got the knife?”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Will, in Ch. 8 : The Tower of the Angels
His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997)

“If they live in the world, they should see and touch and hear and learn things.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 23 : No Way Out

World , Learning

“It lay heavily in her hands, the crystal face gleaming, the golden body exquisitely machined. It was very like a clock, or a compass, for there were hands pointing to places around the dial, but instead of the hours or the points of the compass there were several little pictures, each of them painted with extraordinary precision, as if on ivory with the finest and slenderest sable brush. She turned the dial around to look at them all. There was an anchor; an hourglass surmounted by a skull; a chameleon, a bull, a beehive… Thirty-six altogether, and she couldn't even guess what they meant.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Lyra, investigating the alethiometer, in Ch. 4 : The Alethiometer
His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995)

Painting

“Had she thought there was no meaning in life, no purpose, when God had gone? Yes, she had thought that.
“Well, there is now,” she said aloud, and again, louder: “There is now!””

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Mary in Ch. 34 : There is Now
His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000)

Life , God

“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.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 23 : No Way Out

World , Home , Star , Grass

“Seems to me the place you fight cruelty is where you find it, and the place you give help is where you see it needed.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Lee Scoresby to Stanislaus Grumman in Ch. 14 : Alamo Gulch
His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997)

Help , Fight

“It was all very well, the alethiometer telling her to be truthful, but she knew what would happen if she told the whole truth. She had to tread carefully and just avoid direct lies.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997), Ch. 4 : Trepanning

Truth

“He showed me that to rebel was right and just, when you considered what the agents of the Authority did in His name…. And I thought of the Bolvangar children, and the other terrible mutilitations I have seen in our own southlands; and he told me of many more hideous cruelties dealt out in the Authority’s name—of how they capture witches, in some worlds, and burn them alive, sisters. Yes, witches like ourselves…
He opened my eyes. He showed me things I had never seen, cruelties and horrors all committed in the name of the Authority, all designed to destroy the joys and the truthfulness of life.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Ruta Skadi in Ch. 13 : Æsahættr
His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997)

Life , Children , Truth , World

“Magisterium' and 'oblation' are church terms, they are terms of church organisation. These are administrative things. These are bureaucratic things. How can an attack on those be construed as an attack on God? These are human things which human beings have constructed in order to wield power. That's not a contentious thing to say. That is simply true. These are forms of political organisation and no more than that.”

Philip Pullman

Surefish interview (2002)

God

“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.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Stanislaus Grumman to Lee Scoresby in Ch. 14 : Alamo Gulch
His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997)

Hate , Truth , Fear , Indifference

“In Lyra’s heart, revulsion struggled with compassion, and compassion won.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995), Ch. 13 : Fencing

Heart

“Now here are these children who have gone through great adventures and learned wonderful things and would therefore be in a position to do great things to help other people. But they're taken away. He doesn't let them. For the sake of taking them off to a perpetual school holiday or something, he kills them all in a train crash. I think that's ghastly. It's a horrible message.”

Philip Pullman

On The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
Surefish interview (2002)

Children , People , School , Thinking

“She said that all the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity. She and the rebel angels, the followers of wisdom, have always tried to open minds; the Authority and his churches have always tried to keep them closed.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 36 : The Broken Arrow

Life , Wisdom , Stupidity , Angels

“He'd learned that the object of a school fight was not to gain points for style but to force your enemy to give in, which meant hurting him more than he was hurting you. He knew that you had to be willing to hurt someone else, too, and he'd found out that not many people were, when it came to it; but he knew that he was.
So this wasn't unfamiliar to him, but he hadn't fought against a nearly grown man armed with a knife before, and at all costs he must keep the man from picking it up now that he'd dropped it.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997), Ch. 8 : The Tower of the Angels

People , School , Learning , Fight

“So they had language, and they had fire, and they had society. And about then she found an adjustment being made in her mind, as the word creatures became the word people. These beings weren’t human, but they were people, she told herself; it’s not them, they’re us.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 10 : Wheels

People

“When you stopped believing in God, did you stop believing in good and evil?”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

"No. But I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are. All we can say is that this is a good deed, because it helps someone, or that's an evil one, because it hurts them. People are too complicated to have simple labels."
Will and Mary in Ch. 33 : Marzipan
His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000)

God , Evil

“Doesn’t it scare you, having your death close by all the time?”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

said Lyra.
“Why ever would it? If he’s there, you can keep an eye on him. I'd be a lot more nervous not knowing where he was.”
Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 19 : Lyra and her Death

Death , Time

“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.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 2 : Balthamos and Baruch

Way