The state of mind which I put myself when I tell a story is one in which superstition flourishes very easily. And I welcome that because it helps me.

There is another consequence of any belief in a single god, and that is that it is a very good excuse for people to behave very badly.

Just sort of relax your mind and say yes, it does hurt, I know. Don't try and shut it out.

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.

And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are. All we can say is that this is a good deed, because it helps someone or that's an evil one because it hurts them. People are too complicated to have simple labels.

Men and women are moved by tides much fiercer than you can imagine, and they sweep us all up into the current.

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. At that moment all Will's choices existed at once. But to keep them all in existence meant doing nothing. He had to choose, after all.