All Quotes

"Evolution was far more thrilling to me than the biblical account. Who would not rather be a rising ape than a falling angel? To my juvenile eyes Darwin was proved true every day. It doesn't take much to make us flip back into monkeys again."

"I asked a teacher what the opposite of a miracle was and she, without thinking, I assume, said it was an act of God. You shouldn't say something like that to the kind of kid who will grow up to be a writer; we have long memories."

"As a boy I had a clear image of the Almighty: He had a tail coat and pinstriped trousers, black, slicked-down hair and an aquiline nose. On the whole, I was probably a rather strange child, and I wonder what my life might have been like if I'd met a decent theologian when I was nine."

"I don't believe. I never have, not in big beards in the sky."

"Belief was never mentioned at home, but right actions were taught by daily example. Possibly because of this, I have never disliked religion. I think it has some purpose in our evolution. I don't have much truck with the "religion is the cause of most of our wars" school of thought because that is manifestly done by mad, manipulative and power-hungry men who cloak their ambition in God. I number believers of all sorts among my friends. Some of them are praying for me. I'm happy they wish to do this, I really am, but I think science may be a better bet."

"So what shall I make of the voice that spoke to me recently as I was scuttling around getting ready for yet another spell on a chat-show sofa? More accurately, it was a memory of a voice in my head, and it told me that everything was OK and things were happening as they should. For a moment, the world had felt at peace. Where did it come from? Me, actually — the part of all of us that, in my case, caused me to stand in awe the first time I heard Thomas Tallis's Spem in alium, and the elation I felt on a walk one day last February, when the light of the setting sun turned a ploughed field into shocking pink; I believe it's what Abraham felt on the mountain and Einstein did when it turned out that E=mc2. It's that moment, that brief epiphany when the universe opens up and shows us something, and in that instant we get just a sense of an order greater than Heaven and, as yet at least, beyond the grasp of Stephen Hawking. It doesn't require worship, but, I think, rewards intelligence, observation and enquiring minds. I don't think I've found God, but I may have seen where gods come from."

""I don't mind authority, but not authoritarian authority. After all, the bus driver is allowed to be the boss of the bus. But if he's bad at driving, he's not going to be a bus driver anymore." Interview with Cory Doctorow"

""I know it's a very human thing to say 'Is there anything I can do', but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry." - after announcing his Alzheimer's diagnosis."

"I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else."

"It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. This is in fact true. It's called living."

"Tolkien's dead. J. K. Rowling said no. Philip Pullman couldn't make it. Hi, I'm Terry Pratchett."

""I will not feel sorry for myself for contracting Alzheimer's, I will make Alzheimer's sorry for catching me!" Interview with BBC Radio 5 Live regarding Terry's Alzheimer's diagnosis"

"AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER."

"That's the thing about people who think they hate computers … What they really hate are lousy programmers."

"Think of it as evolution in action."

"God was knocking, and he wanted in bad."

"Half of wisdom is learning what to unlearn."

"Everything starts as somebody's daydream."

"The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don't have a space program, it'll serve us right!"

"The Unexpected always comes at the most awkward times."

"Part of being a coward is wanting security."

"Do you know what it’s like to be suddenly poor and not know how to live poor?"

"There is no turning away from knowledge."

"“Do you believe in hunches?” “No.” “Neither do I. Except just this once.”"

"The moral of this story is, anything you don’t understand is dangerous until you do understand it."

"“Does it help you to know that you’ve ruined my day?” “It does, yes.”"

"I didn’t want to find her. Not now. Our bargain had been clear, and also inevitable; and there are advantages to sleeping alone. I’ll think of them in a moment."

"Just take my word for it, will you? Assume I’m a genius."

"Was he deadpan because he didn’t care anymore? How much boredom can you meet in three hundred years?"

"Any time seems long when you need to make a decision but can’t."

"But the horse ran on, daring Svetz with its eyes. How to describe such motion? Svetz had never seen ballet. He knew how machinery moved, and this wasn’t it. All he could think of was a man and a woman making love. Slippery-smooth rhythmic motion, absolute single-minded purpose, motion for the pleasure of motion. It was terrible in its beauty, the flight of the horse."

"Once the ocean teamed with life, Svetz thought. Now the continental shelf is as dead as the moon: nothing but bubble cities. Once this whole continent was all forest and living desert and fresh water. We cut down the trees and shot the animals and poisoned to the rivers and irrigated the deserts so that even the desert life died; and now there’s nothing left but the food yeast and us. We’ve forgotten so much about the past that we can’t separate legend from fact. We’ve wiped out most of the forms of life on earth in the last fifteen hundred years, and changed the composition of the air to the extent that we’d be afraid to change it back. I fear the unknown beasts of the past. I cannot breathe the air. I do not know the edible plants. I could not kill the animals for food. I do not know which would kill me. The earth’s past is as alien to me as another planet."

"There’s always another problem behind the one you just solved. Does that mean that you should stop solving problems?"

"For each human being there is an optimum ratio between change and stasis. Too little change, he grows bored. Too little stability, he panics and loses his ability to adapt."

"Drugs: “There’s no way to keep them from getting in. Anyone who wants drugs can get them. We make arrests where we can, and so what? Me, I’m betting on Darwin.” “How do you mean?” “The next generation won’t use drugs because they’ll be descended from people who had better sense.”"

"Talking to the Council would be like shouting obscenities at a forest fire."

"“Do you like strange places and faraway people—or vice versa?” “Both.”"

"The trouble with sharing too many beds was that one’s chance of running into a really bad situation was improved almost to certainty."

"Presently she gave her considered opinion. “Idiots.” “No. They’re just like all of us: They want something for nothing.”"

"I had to grin. Morris was shocked and horrified. I’d shown him a brand new sin."

"A species that can’t develop spaceflight is no better than animals."

"When you trade among the stars, there is no repeat business."

"Stupidity is always a capital crime."

"The morning was blacker than the inside of a smoker’s lungs."

"There was this about him: he knew who I was, but he hadn’t remembered my name. Ron Cole had better things to think about than what name belonged with whom. A name was only a tag and a conversational gambit."

"I asked him, “Do you know the difference between nude and naked?” He shook his head. “Nude is artistic. Naked is defenseless.”"

"Anyone who says human nature can’t be changed is out of his head. To make it stick, he’s got to define human nature—and he can’t."

"Peace isn’t a stable condition, not for us. Maybe not for anything that lives."

"“That’s impossible. Isn’t it? Carlos?” Carlos’ mouth twisted. “Not if it’s being done.”"

"In a universe the size of ours almost anything that can happen, will."