I am a strong believer in the tyranny, the dictatorship, the absolute authority of the writer.
—Philip Pullman
You don’t win races by wishing, you win them by running faster than everyone else does.
—Philip Pullman
We don’t need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of do’s and don’ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever.
—Philip Pullman
I don’t believe in it. All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don’t get plumber’s block, and doctors don’t get doctor’s block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?
—Philip Pullman
Topics: Authors & Writing
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. I’d spend all my life without ever going to China, but it wouldn’t matter, because there was all the rest of the world to visit.
—Philip Pullman
Topics: Love
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.
—Philip Pullman
‘Thou shalt not’ is soon forgotten, but ‘Once upon a time’ lasts forever.
—Philip Pullman
Topics: Storytelling
As for what it’s against – the story is against those who pervert and misuse religion, or any other kind of doctrine with a holy book and a priesthood and an apparatus of power that wields unchallengeable authority, in order to dominate and suppress human freedoms.
—Philip Pullman
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