She was beautiful, but she was beautiful in the way a forest fire was beautiful: something to be admired from a distance, not up close.

It's not morbid to talk about death. Most people don't worry about death, they worry about a bad death.

Never trust a species that grins all the time. It’s up to something.

Find the story, Granny Weatherwax always said. She believed that the world was full of story shapes. If you let them, they controlled you. But if you studied them, if you found out about them... you could use them, you could change them.

If you have let pride get the better of you, then you have already lost, but if you grab pride by the scruff of the neck and ride it like a stallion, then you may have already won.

We live in a science fiction universe. We have done for a long time.

The people of Ankh-Morpork had a straightforward, no-nonsense approach to entertainment, and while they were looking forward to seeing a dragon slain, they'd be happy to settle instead for seeing someone being baked alive in his own armour. You didn't get the chance every day to see someone baked alive in their own armour. It would be something for the children to remember.