Quotes

• From the Books
• Real-Life

Terry Pratchett has always been one for the one-liners. Some of the classics:

“People who are rather more than six feet tall and nearly as broad across the shoulders often have uneventful journeys. People jump out at them from behind rocks then say things like ‘Oh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else.’”

-Guards! Guards! (Terry Pratchett)

“Probably the last sound heard before the Universe folded up like a paper hat would be someone saying, ‘What happens if I do this?’”

-Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett)

“When you hear a man shouting ‘Forward, brave comrades!’ you’ll see he’s the one behind the bloody big rock and wearing the only really arrow-proof helmet!”

-Rincewind, Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett)

… and there are more. Lots more. But Terry Pratchett has said a number of other, too, which are also worth recording. Some examples:

“There’s this old thing about fantasy being something that’s read by 14-year-old boys, as if actually that’s quite wrong,” Terry says. “Half the population can’t help the fact they’re male and if you’re 14 years old, well, you grow out of it in 12 months.”

–http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/features/leader/display.var.1363390.0.i_stared_death_in_the_face.php

“[Fantasy] gives me a couple of different colours in the paintbox I would say. That’s what fantasy does - you get everything, so I can write cop novels, I can write murder mysteries, I can write romances. But they’re all like I used to say - put in one lousy dragon and they call you a fantasy writer.”

–http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/features/leader/display.var.1363390.0.i_stared_death_in_the_face.php

We’ll let Terry Pratchett have the last word on this page:

“Is it a good thing that children believe in the tooth fairy or believe in the Hogfather (or shall we say Father Christmas)? Yes. We need to train our imagination on the little lies, so we can believe the big lies like justice, truth, and by taking them seriously, make them into something real.”

–The 12 Days of Hogswatch (iTunes Podcast)