We have to build the Republic of Heaven where we are, because for us there is no elsewhere.
Philip PullmanOne of the ways in which writers most show their inventiveness is in the things they tell us about how they write. Generally speaking, I don't like to make a plan before I've written a story. I find it kills the story - deadens it, makes it uninteresting. Unless I'm surprised by something in a story, the reader's not going to be surprised either.
Philip PullmanWhen you live for many hundreds of years, you know that every opportunity will come again.
Philip PullmanMarisa! Marisa!โ The cry was torn from Lord Asriel, and with the snow leopard beside her, with a roaring in her ears, Lyraโs mother stood and found her footing and leapt with all her heart, to hurl herself against the angel and her daemon and her dying lover, and seize those beating wings, and bear them all down together into the abyss.
Philip PullmanThere's some that came here never believing they were dead. They insisted all the way that they were alive, it was a mistake, someone would have to pay; made no difference. There's others who longed to be dead when they were alive, poor souls; lives full of pain or misery; killed themselves for a chance of a blessed rest, and found that nothing had changed except for the worse, and this time there was no escape; you can't make yourself alive again.
Philip Pullman