I don't like rats any more than the next bloke, but they ain't wicked and cruel like people can be. They're just ratty in their habits.

— Philip Pullman

If a coin comes down heads, that means that the possibility of its coming down tails has collapsed. Until that moment the two possibilities were equal. But on another world, it does come down tails. And when that happens, the two worlds split apart.

— Philip Pullman

I feel with some passion that what we truly are is private, and almost infinitely complex, and ambiguous, and both external and internal, and double- or triple- or multiply nature, and largely mysterious even to ourselves; and furthermore that what we are is only part of us, because identity, unlike "identity", must include what we do. And I think that to find oneself and every aspect of this complexity reduced in the public mind to one property that apparently subsumes all the rest ("gay", "black", "Muslim", whatever) is to be the victim of a piece of extraordinary intellectual vulgarity.

— Philip Pullman

If there is a war to be fought, we don’t consider cost one of the factors in deciding whether to fight.

— Philip Pullman

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.

— Philip Pullman

I have said that His Dark Materials is not fantasy but stark realism, and my reason for this is to emphasize what I think is an important aspect of the story, namely the fact that it is realistic, in psychological terms. I deal with matters that might normally be encountered in works of realism, such as adolescence, sexuality, and so on; and they are the main subject of the story – the fantasy (which, of course, is there: no-one but a fool would think I meant there is no fantasy in the books at all) is there to support and embody them, not for its own sake. Dæmons, for example, might otherwise be only a meaningless decoration, adding nothing to the story: but I use them to embody and picture some truths about human personality which I couldn't picture so easily without them. I'm trying to write a book about what it means to be human, to grow up, to suffer and learn. My quarrel with much (not all) fantasy is it has this marvelous toolbox and does nothing with it except construct shoot-em-up games. Why shouldn't a work of fantasy be as truthful and profound about becoming an adult human being as the work of George Eliot or Jane Austen?

— Philip Pullman

I have stolen ideas from every book I have ever read.

— Philip Pullman

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 won't just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight...

— Philip Pullman

I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief... I'm not in the business of offending people. Furthermore, 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

— Philip Pullman

I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief... I'm not in the business of offending people. Furthermore, 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.]

— Philip Pullman