Philip Pullman (b.1946,) born Philip Nicholas Outram, is an English children’s author and dramatist. A well-regarded children’s author since the 1980s, he achieved international bestseller status with the publication of the first volume of the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials (1995–2000.)
Born in Norwich, Pullman was the son of a Royal Air Force officer. He was educated in England, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe,) Australia, and Wales. After studying English at Oxford’s Exeter College, Pullman remained a resident-teacher in Oxford and began writing children’s books.
Pullman’s first novels—The Haunted Storm (1972) and Galatea (1976)—were focused on an adult audience. In the ’80s and ’90s, he began writing for children and young adults; his Sally Lockhart detective stories were published 1985–94.
Pullman is best known for the trilogy His Dark Materials, which includes the novels Northern Lights (1995; also The Golden Compass, 1996; film adaptation 2007,) The Subtle Knife (1997,) and The Amber Spyglass (2000.)
Among Pullman’s other works are How to Be Cool (1987,) The Broken Bridge (1990,) The White Mercedes (1992; film adaptation The Butterfly Tattoo, 2009,) The Firework-Maker’s Daughter (1995,) The Scarecrow and the Servant (2004,) and The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (2010.) His Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling (2018) discusses his approach to writing as well as his influences.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Philip Pullman
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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