Philip Pullman · 405 pages
Rating: (19.3K votes)
“Finally, I’d say to anyone who wants to tell these tales, don’t be afraid to be superstitious. If you have a lucky pen, use it. If you speak with more force and wit when wearing one red sock and one blue one, dress like that. When I’m at work I’m highly superstitious. My own superstition has to do with the voice in which the story comes out. I believe that every story is attended by its own sprite, whose voice we embody when we tell the tale, and that we tell it more successfully if we approach the sprite with a certain degree of respect and courtesy. These sprites are both old and young, male and female, sentimental and cynical, sceptical and credulous, and so on, and what’s more, they’re completely amoral: like the air-spirits who helped Strong Hans escape from the cave, the story-sprites are willing to serve whoever has the ring, whoever is telling the tale. To the accusation that this is nonsense, that all you need to tell a story is a human imagination, I reply, ‘Of course, and this is the way my imagination works.”
― Philip Pullman, quote from Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version
“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.”
― Philip Pullman, quote from Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version
“Princess, princess, youngest daughter,
Open up and let me in!
Or else your promise by the water
Isn’t worth a rusty pin.
Keep your promise, royal daughter,
Open up and let me in!”
― Philip Pullman, quote from Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version
“He sat down and collected his thoughts. They were quite easy to collect, because there weren't very many of them, and they all concerned the same subject--what a burden his life was.”
― Philip Pullman, quote from Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version
“the particular plant longed for by the wife, which was originally parsley, was a well-known abortifacient.”
― Philip Pullman, quote from Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version
“Much ingenious interpretation of story is little more than seeing pleasing patterns in the sparks of a fire, but it does no harm.”
― Philip Pullman, quote from Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version
“and she saw a bed of lamb’s lettuce, or rapunzel.”
― Philip Pullman, quote from Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version
Philip Pullman
Born place: in Norwich, Norfolk, England, The United Kingdom
Born date October 19, 1946
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“Our demise may instead result from the habitat destruction that ensues when the AI begins massive global construction projects using nanotech factories and assemblers—construction”
― Nick Bostrom, quote from Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
“I hadn't expected the game to start off so poorly, so I hadn't yet gathered any ideas for penalties to dole out. So I asked another question. "Fine. What is your favorite color?"
"Green. What's yours?"
My glance fell on the salver beside me. "Red. Favorite smell?"
"Incense. Favorite animal?"
My eyes lingered on his. "Wolf. Favorite composer?"
"You.”
― S. Jae-Jones, quote from Wintersong
“The Neverseen may think themselves brilliant schemers, full of plans no one would ever suspect.
But when it came to game-changing secrets, the Black Swan would always be the best.”
― Shannon Messenger, quote from Nightfall
“How somebody can’t recognize their own eyes, I’ll never know.”
― Sally Thorne, quote from The Hating Game
“I’ll keep doing it even though she’s not here to defend.
Because there are others like him still. Tonight they used words they know, words that don’t bother people anymore. They said bitch. They told another girl they would put their dicks in her mouth. No one protested because this is our language now. But then I used my words, strung in phrases that cut deep, and people paid attention; people gasped. People didn’t know what to think.
My language is shocking.”
― Mindy McGinnis, quote from The Female of the Species
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