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We don't need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence
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books
inspirational
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Philip Pullman |
047f412
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We don't need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence.
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inspirational
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Philip Pullman |
d39ad0c
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You cannot change what you are, only what you do.
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self-determination
change
life
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Philip Pullman |
1cdd1c9
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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.
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morality
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Philip Pullman |
1921495
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I'll be looking for you, Will, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you... We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams... And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they wont' just be able to ta..
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physics
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Philip Pullman |
3ff5f83
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People are too complicated to have simple labels.
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people
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Philip Pullman |
90c4940
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Oh, Will," she said, "What can we do? Whatever can we do? I want to live with you forever. I want to kiss you and lie down with you and wake up with you every day of my life till I die, years and years and years away. I don't want a memory, just a memory..." "No," he said. "Memory's a poor thing to have. It's your own real hair and mouth and arms and eyes and hands I want. I didn't know I could ever love anything so much. Oh, Lyra, I wish t..
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Philip Pullman |
05f3dee
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All the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity.
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Philip Pullman |
575bd5d
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I don't profess any religion; I don't think it's possible that there is a God; I have the greatest difficulty in understanding what is meant by the words 'spiritual' or 'spirituality.'
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understanding
writing
spirituality
spiritual
difficulty
possibility
atheist
sarcasm
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Philip Pullman |
abdc7e5
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When you look at what C.S. Lewis is saying, his message is so anti-life, so cruel, so unjust. The view that the Narnia books have for the material world is one of almost undisguised contempt. At one point, the old professor says, 'It's all in Plato' -- meaning that the physical world we see around us is the crude, shabby, imperfect, second-rate copy of something much better. I want to emphasize the simple physical truth of things, the absol..
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young-adult
books
beauty
wisdom
offense
philip-pullman
book
belief
value
children-s-books
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Philip Pullman |
47c28c8
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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.
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philosophy
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Philip Pullman |
d868db1
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That's the duty of the old,' said the Librarian, 'to be anxious on the 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.
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Philip Pullman |
42dfcd2
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I have stolen ideas from every book I have ever read.
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on-writing
storytelling
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Philip Pullman |
35c50a5
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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.
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Philip Pullman |
6533670
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You speak of destiny as if it was fixed.
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fate
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Philip Pullman |
8247001
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But it gradually seemed to me that I'd made myself believe something that wasn't true. I'd made myself believe that I was fine and happy and fulfilled on my own without the love of anyone else. 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..
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Philip Pullman |
13955d1
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You are so young, Lyra, too young to understand this, but I shall tell you anyway and you'll understand it later: men pass in front of our eyes like butterflies, creatures of a brief season. We love them; they are brave, proud, beautiful, clever; and they die almost at once. They die so soon that our hearts are continually racked with pain. We bear their children, who are witches if they are female, human if not; and then in the blink of an..
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witches
death
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Philip Pullman |
7faffe1
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There's a hunger for stories in all of us, adults too. We need stories so much that we're even willing to read bad books to get them, if the good books won't supply them.
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books
inspirational
companionship
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Philip Pullman |
9b37290
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I told him I was going to betray you, and betray Lyra, and he believed me because I was corrupt and full of wickedness; he looked so deep I felt sure he'd see the truth. But I lied too well. I was lying with every nerve and fiber and everything I'd ever done...I wanted him to find no good in me, and he didn't. There is none.
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lies
good
love
truth
mrs-coulter
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Philip Pullman |
875898c
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Iorek Byrnison: Can is not the same as must. Lyra Silvertongue: But if you must and you can, then there's no excuse.
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Philip Pullman |
9bdec49
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Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit.
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Philip Pullman |
2db72a9
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I am a strong believer in the tyranny, the dictatorship, the absolute authority of the writer.
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writing
inspirational
tyranny
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Philip Pullman |
cccd81e
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I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief... I'm not in the business of offending people. I find the books upholding certain values that I think are important, such as life is immensely valuable and this world is an extraordinarily beautiful place. We should do what we can to increase the amount of wisdom in the world.
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young-adult
books
beauty
wisdom
offense
philip-pullman
book
plot
belief
value
children-s-books
paraphrased
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philip pullman |
7dfe527
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Maybe sometimes we don't do the right thing because the wrong thing looks more dangerous, and we don't want to look scared, so we go and do the wrong thing just because it's dangerous. We're more concerned with not looking scared than with judging right.
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philosophy
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Philip Pullman |
498031b
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She wondered whether there would ever come an hour in her life when she didn't think of him -- didn't speak to him in her head, didn't relive every moment they'd been together, didn't long for his voice and his hands and his love. She had never dreamed of what it would feel like to love someone so much; of all the things that had astonished her in her adventures, that was what astonished her the most. She thought the tenderness it left in h..
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Philip Pullman |
716ebd9
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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.
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life
inspirational
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Philip Pullman |
3e82b81
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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.
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labels
good
people
complicated
deed
evil
name
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Philip Pullman |
f2fa3cc
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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.
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science
inspirational
controversy
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Philip Pullman |
e4a7c13
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When he'd sworn at her and been sworn at in return, they became great friends.
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Philip Pullman |
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We shouldn't live as if [other worlds] mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place.
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living
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Philip Pullman |
593ca26
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So Lyra and her daemon turned away from the world they were born in, and looked toward the sun, and walked into the sky.
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the-golden-compass
philip-pullman
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Philip Pullman |
7248980
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I will love you for ever, whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead I'll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again...
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Philip Pullman |
1459118
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Human beings can't see anything without wanting to destroy it. That's original sin. And I'm going to destroy it. Death is going to die.
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Philip Pullman |
3bde908
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Being a practiced liar doesn't mean you have a powerful imagination. Many good liars have no imagination at all; it's that which gives their lies such wide-eyed conviction.
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lie
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Philip Pullman |
3d710b6
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Tell them stories.
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harpies
lyra
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Philip Pullman |
23d665e
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People should decide on the books' meanings for themselves. They'll find a story that attacks such things as cruelty, oppression, intolerance, unkindness, narrow-mindedness, and celebrates love, kindness, open-mindedness, tolerance, curiosity, human intelligence.
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philosophy
sci-fi
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Philip Pullman |
8bccaa1
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The idea hovered and shimmered 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.
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Philip Pullman |
8af3718
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All good things pass away.
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demise
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Philip Pullman |
41651f4
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We feel cold, but we don't mind it, because we will not come to harm. And if we wrapped up against the cold, we wouldn't feel other things, like the bright tingle of the stars, or the music of the aurora, or best of all the silky feeling of moonlight on our skin. It's worth being cold for that.
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winter
nature
witches
moonlight
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Philip Pullman |
0b6f41c
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That's the duty of the old, to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.
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youth
maturity
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Philip Pullman |
753d461
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You don't win races by wishing, you win them by running faster than everyone else does.
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life
inspirational
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Philip Pullman |
a1dd230
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It takes long practice, yes. You have to work. Did you think you could snap your fingers, and have it as a gift? What is worth having is worth working for.
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Philip Pullman |
d86f440
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Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all
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Philip Pullman |
72bbccc
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Lonely? I don't know. They tell me this is cold. I don't know what cold is, because I don't freeze. So I don't know what lonely means either. Bears are made to be solitary.
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Philip Pullman |