Why was it that pride and foolishness were so often close companions?

I do think that part of literature's job is to comment on and participate in the social issues of the time.

A mistake made with good in your heart is still a mistake, but it is one for which you must forgive yourself.

Why was it that pride and foolishness were so often close companions?

You burn the paper, but not the words. You silence the words, but not the thoughts. You kill the thoughts only if you kill the man. And you will find that his thoughts rise again in the minds of others - twice as strong as before.

I want all my books to provoke some kind of response in the reader, to make them think something or feel something or both, and for that to become a part of them and work into their own lives.

My son and I discovered Terry Pratchett's books together, when he was about eleven years old. He'd be reading on his own and would start to laugh, and then eagerly read the passage aloud to me--and I'd do the same to him! Pratchett's books became a shared source of delight for us back then, and they still are today.