Home / Authors / Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman Quotes

Film writer

Philip Pullman is a British film writer known for his adaptations of literary works. Born in October 1946, he is a prolific writer who has adapted several renowned novels into film scripts.

Filter quotes by topic

All Ifs Stories Writing Thinking World Book Knows His Dark Materials Way Children People Doe Humans Imagination Love Want Wells Kind Moments Reading

Famous Philip Pullman Quotes

“But I know that all the things I do know are very small compared with the things that I don't know.”

Knows

Author:Philip Pullman

“This is the value for me of writing books that children read. Children aren't interested in your appalling self-consciousness. They want to know what happens next. They force you to tell a story.”

Knows Want Writing Children Book Self Stories Happens Values Next Force Consciousness Writing A Book Self Consciousness

Author:Philip Pullman

“Literary modernism kind of grew out of a sense that, “Oh my god! I’m telling a story! Oh, that can’t be the case, because I’m a clever person. I’m a literary person! What am I going to do to distinguish myself? I know! I’ll write Ulysses.””

Knows Writing Kind Persons Stories Cases Grew Clever Modernism Ulysses Clever Person

Author:Philip Pullman

“The justice of it seems to children correct and right - I mean, we laugh at it! We underestimate children's ability to know what is a story and what isn't.”

Knows Mean Children Stories Seems Justice Ability Laughing Underestimate

Author:Philip Pullman

“I don't see any sign of God in this world, in the place where we live and things we know. It can all be explained to my mind perfectly satisfactorily without God. But in the great darkness beyond this little spark of light where I live, of course there may be all kinds of things. There may be a god. So I'm really an agnostic.”

Knows World Mind Kind May Littles Light Courses Darkness This World All Kinds Sparks Agnostic Without God

Author:Philip Pullman

“All the stories of the Bible that I know came to me first from my grandfather's lips... He would see stories in everything. He told stories very easily and very generously, so I loved him for that. He was a simple man, a Victorian; he was born in 1890-something. He saw no reason and had never seen any reason to question his Christian faith. His faith was strong and simple and that's it. And I, like his other grandchildren and the children in his parish, sheltered underneath it.”

Knows Men Firsts Children Reason Stories Christian Strong Born Simple Saws Lips No Reason Grandfather Grandchildren My Grandfather Christian Faith Victorian Parish Simple Man

Author:Philip Pullman

“Well, I have an idea, usually a visual image of some sort. A setting. A particular, I don't know, urban scene, a particular time of day. Something that grips my imagination for some reason.”

Knows Wells Ideas Reason Imagination Particular Scene Setting Settings Visuals Urban My Imagination Time Of Day Visual Images

Author:Philip Pullman

“I think it's perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing God into it, but I don't know everything, and there may well be a God somewhere, hiding away. Actually, if he is keeping out of sight, it's because he's ashamed of his followers and all the cruelty and ignorance they're responsible for promoting in his name. If I were him, I'd want nothing to do with them.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Want Wells May Religion Universe Names Ignorance Sight Responsible Cruelty Ashamed Hiding Followers Promoting

Author:Philip Pullman

“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.”

Knows Want Said Real Hands Eye Memories Poor Hair Arms Mouths Real Hair

Book:The Amber Spyglass

Source: The Amber Spyglass

“The intentions of a tool are what it does. A hammer intends to strike, a vise intends to hold fast, a lever intends to lift. They are what it is made for. But sometimes a tool may have other uses that you don't know. Sometimes in doing what you intend, you also do what the knife intends, without knowing.”

Knows May Doe Made Sometimes Use Technology Knowing Tools Intention Strikes Lifts Knives Hammers Hold Fast Levers

Book:The Amber Spyglass

Source: The Amber Spyglass

“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.”

Knows Want Humans Littles Has Beens Increase Stronger Humble Submit Wiser Be Humble Human Freedom

Book:The subtle knife

Source: The subtle knife

“If I'm reading something I happen to know and gets it wrong, I just don't trust the book any more. What I ask of a novel I'm reading is that it should know a fraction more about the things I know than I do. When I'm writing...I ask myself: would I be convinced by this if I read it? If I knocked against this bit of scenery, would it feel solid?”

Ifs Knows Feels Should Writing Book Happens Reading Asks Bits Novel Convinced Fractions Don't Trust Scenery

Author:Philip Pullman

“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.”

Knows Mean Made Cold Bears Lonely Solitary Freeze

Book:Northern lights

Source: Northern lights

“I know whom we must fight...it is the Church. For all its history, it's tried to suppress and control every natural impulse.That is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling.”

Knows Doe Feelings Fighting Natural Church Impulse Good Feeling

Author:Philip Pullman

“When you live for many hundreds of years, you know that every opportunity will come again.”

Knows Years Opportunity

Book:Northern lights

Source: Northern lights

“Just sort of relax your mind and say yes, it does hurt, I know. Don't try and shut it out.”

Knows Trying Mind Doe Hurt Relax

Author:Philip Pullman

“There’s been terrible things we seen, en’t there? And more a coming, more’n likely. So I think I’d rather not know what’s in the future. I’ll stick to the present.”

Thinking Knows Terrible Sticks Terrible Things

Book:Northern lights

Source: Northern lights

“D'you know how embarrassing it is to mention good and evil in a scientific laboratory? Have you any idea? One of the reasons I became a scientist was not to have to think about that kind of thing.”

Thinking Knows Kind Ideas Reason Evil Know How Scientist Good And Evil Embarrassing Laboratory

Book:The subtle knife

Source: The subtle knife

“I don't know where my ideas come from, but I know where they come to. They come to my desk, and if I'm not there, they go away again.”

Ifs Knows Writing Ideas Going Away Desks

Book:Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling

Source: Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling

About the Author

Born: October 19, 1946
Known for: Film writer
Quotes: 294

Books & Sources

The Amber SpyglassRelated source material

The subtle knifeRelated source material

Northern lightsRelated source material

The Golden CompassRelated source material

The Secret CommonwealthRelated source material

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel ChristRelated source material

Dæmon VoicesRelated source material

The Ruby in the SmokeRelated source material

His Dark Materials: The Complete TrilogyRelated source material

ClockworkRelated source material

Similar Authors

George SaundersBrowse related quotes
Stephen KingBrowse related quotes
Neil GaimanBrowse related quotes
Paul AusterBrowse related quotes
Salman RushdieBrowse related quotes
Donald MillerBrowse related quotes
Ray BradburyBrowse related quotes
Jeanette WintersonBrowse related quotes
Margaret AtwoodBrowse related quotes
Anna QuindlenBrowse related quotes