The secret is not to dream," she whispered. "The secret is to wake up. Waking up is harder. I have woken up and I am real. I know where I come from and I know where I'm going. You cannot fool me any more. Or touch me. Or anything that is mine.

People are content to wait a long time for salvation, but prefer dinner to turn up inside an hour.

I see evil when I look in my shaving mirror. It is, philosophically, present everywhere in the universe in order, apparently, to highlight the existence of good. I think there is more to this theory, but I tend to burst out laughing at this point.

Cats will amusingly tolerate humans only until someone comes up with a tin opener that can be operated with a paw.

Knowledge is dangerous, which is why governments often clamp down on people who can think thoughts above a certain caliber.

It was all very well going on about pure logic and how the universe was ruled by logic and the harmony of numbers, but the plain fact of the matter was that the Disc was manifestly traversing space on the back of a giant turtle and the gods had a habit of going round to atheists' houses and smashing their windows.

I was a very keen reader of science fiction, and during the time I was going to libraries, it was good, written by people who knew their science.