"A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read."
Read quote
6 likes
Quote collection
Terry Pratchett quotes (page 29 of 72)
1.4K quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"You can't remember the plot of the Dr Who movie because it didn't have one, just a lot of plot holes strung together. It did have a lot of flashing lights, though."
Read quote
6 likes
"Previous generations understood about death, and undoubtedly would have seen a reasonable amount of death. Once you get into the Victorian era, you might well have seen the funerals of many of your siblings before you were very old."
Read quote
6 likes
"When you're all singing together, it brings things together. I know the songs that my grandfather and my father sang."
Read quote
6 likes
"Most gods find it hard to walk and think at the same time."
Read quote
6 likes
"Pets are always a great help in times of stress. And in times of starvation too, o'course."
Read quote
6 likes
"Haven't you got any romance in your soul?" said Magrat plaintively. "No," said Granny. "I ain't. And stars don't care what you wish, and magic don't make things better, and no one doesn't get burned who sticks their hand in a fire. If you want to amount to anything as a witch, Magrat Garlick, you got to learn three things. What's real, what's not real, and what's the difference."
Read quote
6 likes
"A Thaum is the basic unit of magical strength. It has been universally established as the amount of magic needed to create one small white pigeon or three normal-sized billiard balls."
Read quote
6 likes
"Eight years involved with the nuclear industry have taught me that when nothing can possible go wrong and every avenue has been covered, then is the time to buy a house on the next continent."
Read quote
6 likes
"My own books drive themselves. I know roughly where a book is going to end, but essentially the story develops under my fingers. It's just a matter of joining the dots."
Read quote
6 likes
"I regarded finding I had a form of Alzheimer's as an insult, and I decided to do my best to marshal any kind of forces that I could against this wretched disease. I have posterior cortical atrophy or PCA. They say, rather ingenuously, that if you have Alzheimer's it's the best form of Alzheimer's to have."
Read quote
6 likes
"There was once a caustic comment from someone suggesting I was breeding a new race. Fans from different countries have married, amazing things like that. I've been to some of the weddings. I went to one here the other day, a pagan ceremony."
Read quote
6 likes
"In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the cat, although in this case there were three determinate states the cat could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious."
Read quote
6 likes
"I could be wrong. Not being certain is what being a philosopher is all about."
Read quote
6 likes
"Rumour is information distilled so finely that it can filter through anything. It does not need doors and windows -- sometimes it does not need people. It can exist free and wild, running from ear to ear without ever touching lips."
Read quote
6 likes
"Probably the last man who knew how it worked had been tortured to death years before. Or as soon as it was installed. Killing the creator was a traditional method of patent-protection."
Read quote
6 likes
"The figures looked more or less human. And they were engaged in religion. You could tell by the knives (it's not murder if you do it for a god)."
Read quote
6 likes
"Bishops move diagonally. That's why they often turn up where the kings don't expect them to be."
Read quote
6 likes
"Sometimes words need music too. Sometimes the descriptions are not enough. Books should be written with soundtracks, like films."
Read quote
6 likes
"It was quite impossible to describe. Here is what it looked like. It looked like a piano sounds shortly after being dropped down a well. It tasted yellow, and it felt Paisley. It smelled like the total eclipse of the moon."
Read quote
6 likes