...his face bore an expression that mingled haughty disdain with a tender, ardent sympathy, as if he would love all things if only his nature could let him forget their defects.
Philip PullmanThe Specters feast as vampires feast on blood, but the Spectersโ food is attention. A conscious and informed interest in the world. The immaturity of children is less attractive to them.
Philip PullmanLyra learns to her great cost that fantasy isnโt enough. She has been lying all her life, telling stories to people, making up fantasies, and suddenly she comes to a point where thatโs not enough. All she can do is tell the truth. She tells the truth about her childhood, about the experiences she had in Oxford, and that is what saves her. True experience, not fantasy - reality, not lies - is what saves us in the end.
Philip PullmanHe meant the Kingdom was over, the Kingdom of Heaven, it was all finished. We shouldn't live as if it mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place.... We have to be all those difficult things like cheerful and kind and curious and patient, and we've got to study and think and work hard, all of us, in all our different worlds, and then we'll build... The Republic of Heaven.
Philip Pullman