We are all subject to the fates. But we must all act as if we are not, or die of despair...death will sweep through all the worlds; it will be the triumph of despair, forever. The universes will all become nothing more than interlocking machines, blind and empty of thought, feeling, life...

When you choose one way out of many, all the ways you don't take are snuffed out like candles, as if they'd never existed.

I don't know where my ideas come from, but I know where they come to. They come to my desk, and if I'm not there, they go away again.

We have to build the Republic of Heaven where we are, because for us there is no elsewhere.

I told him I was going to betray you, and betray Lyra, and he believed me because I was corrupt and full of wickedness; he looked so deep I felt sure he'd see the truth. But I lied too well. I was lying with every nerve and fiber and everything I'd ever done...I wanted him to find no good in me, and he didn't. There is none.

Lonely? I don't know. They tell me this is cold. I don't know what cold is, because I don't freeze. So I don't know what lonely means either. Bears are made to be solitary.

I'm perfectly happy about being superstitious and atheistic.