Quotes from Philip Pullman

Malcolm stared back calmly, though he felt anything but calm: if that monkey had a name, it might be Malice, he thought.

Each kiss was nearer to the last one of all.

The idea hovered and shivered delicately, like a soap bubble, and she dared not even look at it directly in case it burst. But she was familiar with the way of ideas, and she let it shimmer, looking away, thinking about something else.

They could not have done it alone, but together they did it.

All things from the north are devilish.

That's the duty of the old," said the Librarian, "to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old." They sat for a while longer, and then parted, for it was late, and they were old and anxious.

Aveva detto una volta a Serafina Pekkala che a lui volare non importava, che era soltanto un lavoro come un altro, ma non parlava sul serio. Levarsi in alto, con un buon vento alle spalle e un nuovo mondo davanti: cosa poteva esserci di meglio in questa vita?

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.

It's the oldest human problem, Lyra, an' it's the difference between good and evil. Evil can be unscrupulous, and good can't. Evil has nothing to stop it doing what it wants, while good has one hand tied behind its back. To do the things it needs to do to win, it'd have to become evil to do 'em.

conscious only of his movement upward, the last of Lee Scoresby passed through the heavy clouds and came out under the brilliant stars, where the atoms of his beloved dæmons, Hester, were waiting for him.

She was afraid of her father, and she admired him profoundly, and she thought he was stark mad; but who was she to judge?

All the atoms that were them, they've gone into the air and the wind and the trees and the earth and all the living things. They'll never vanish. They're just part of everything.

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.

Finally, and almost simultaneously, the children discovered what it was like to be drunk. "Do they like doing this?" gasped Roger, after vomiting copiously. "Yes," said Lyra, in the same condition. "And so do I," she added stubbornly. Lyra

Around them there was nothing but silence, as if all the world were holding its breath.

A genuine scientist would love the subject for itself; I think I love science for the stories that are told about it.

Besides, if you want to write something perfect, write a haiku. Anything longer is bound to have a few passages that don't work as well as they might.

Was there only one world after all, which spent its time dreaming of others?

If a witch offers you her love,you should take it. If you don't it's your own fault if bad things happen to you...

The park was a scruffy patch of grass, muddy in winter and dusty in summer, set about with a few dozen trees, a bandstand, and a pond on which swam a family of depraved and malevolent ducks.

He had to stay close to the ship, of course, for he could never go far from her; but she sensed his desire to speed as far and as fast as he could, for pure exhilaration. She shared his pleasure, but for her it wasn't simple pleasure, for there was pain and fear in it too. Suppose he loved being a dolphin more than he loved being with her on land? What would she do then? Her

if I have to die to do what's proper, then I will, and be happy while I do.

Good intentions never wrote a story worth reading.

Novels and stories are not arguments; they set out not to convince, but to beguile.