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Terry Pratchett Quotes - Page 32

All Quotes Accidents Adventure Age Arguing Art Atheism Atheist Authority Balance Beer Belief Blame Chaos Character Children Chocolate Choices Coffee Copper Country Crime Darkness Death Dementia Democracy Doubt Dying Effort End Of The World Evil Fate Feelings Fighting Finding Yourself Flying Food Football Fun Funeral Funny Genius Geography Giving Gold Goodbye Growing Up Hate Heart Heaven Hell History Home Horror House Humanity Hurt Husband Ignorance Imagination Inspiration Inspirational Jesus Journey Justice Killing Language Leaving Letting Go Life Life And Death Listening Literature Logic Losing Luck Lying Magic Mankind Manners Memories Military Moon Morning Motivational Mountain Observation Opportunity Pain Past Perspective Philosophy Police Pride Progress Purpose Quality Rain Reading Reality Religion Responsibility Romance Running Safety Sanity School Science Science Fiction Silence Sin Singing Sleep Smoking Son Soul Spring Students Stupidity Style Suffering Sunrise Travel Trust Truth Understanding Universe Violence Waiting Wall War Water Wife Winning Work Out Worry Writing
My programming language was solder.

My programming language was solder.

Terry Pratchett
Language, Programming, Programming Languages
On his early computers, from a talk "When I Were A Lad, We Used To Dream of 64K" at the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Scotland, August 2005.

Before you can become a writer, you have to be a reader, and a reader of everything, at that. To the best of my recollection, I became a reader at the age of 10 and have never stopped. Like many authors, I read all sorts of books all the time, and it is amazing how the mind fills up.

Terry Pratchett
Book, Mind, Age
Source: www.washingtonpost.com

All holy piety in public, and all peeled grapes and self-indulgence in private.

Terry Pratchett
Self, Holy, Grapes
Terry Pratchett (2008). “Small Gods: (Discworld Novel 13)”, p.232, Random House

Most people who have found that they are more intelligent than most around them, have yet to learn that one of the most intelligent things they can do is prevent said people ever finding this out.

Terry Pratchett
Intelligent, People, Found

Life doesn't happen in chapters - at least, not regular ones.

Terry Pratchett
Chapters, Happens
Booksource.com Interview with Gavin J. Grant, 2008.

You can't make people happy by law. If you said to a bunch of average people two hundred years ago "Would you be happy in a world where medical care is widely available, houses are clean, the world's music and sights and foods can be brought into your home at small cost, traveling even 100 miles is easy, childbirth is generally not fatal to mother or child, you don't have to die of dental abscesses and you don't have to do what the squire tells you" they'd think you were talking about the New Jerusalem and say "yes."

Terry Pratchett
Mother, Children, Home
"Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

The English were notoriously unenthusiastic about burning witches. I suppose ours were too soggy.

Terry Pratchett
Burning, Witch

So, mistletoe, in fact, symbolizes mistletoe.

Terry Pratchett
Facts, Mistletoe
Terry Pratchett (2008). “Hogfather: (Discworld Novel 20)”, p.176, Random House

Granny knew all about bad fortune-telling. It was harder than the real thing. You needed a good imagination.

Terry Pratchett
Real, Imagination, Fortune Telling

Not for the first time in the history of the universe, someone for whom communication normally came as effortlessly as a dream was stuck for inspiration when faced with a few lines on the back of a card.

Terry Pratchett
Dream, Communication, Inspiration
Terry Pratchett (2010). “Witches Abroad: (Discworld Novel 12)”, p.107, Random House

Granny Weatherwas was not a jouster in the lists of love, but, as an intelligent onlooker, she knew how the game was played.

Terry Pratchett
Intelligent, Games, Lists

You get all sorts of people in the library, and the librarian gets it all.

Terry Pratchett
People, Library, Librarian

I was once a journalist. And I think of myself as a journalist, and that's it. You tell the truth. I even wrote a book called 'The Truth'.

Terry Pratchett
Book, Thinking, Telling The Truth
"Terry Pratchett on his latest novel, his medical diagnosis, and more". Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. November 16, 2012.

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

Terry Pratchett
People, Worry, Morbid

People don't like to say Horror so they say Dark Fantasy because that's Horror wearing a collar and tie.

Terry Pratchett
Dark, Ties, People
Source: bobneilson.org

There's that lovely thing for the first month or two of writing a new book: OK, I don't know what that character's going to do, but we'll find out later. After about three or four months you come to that bit where you've got to put some plot in before it's too late, and you have to go back and start inserting plot, and, ooh, I've left out the literature, OK, lets put some in.

Terry Pratchett
Book, Writing, Character
Source: www.theguardian.com

No, I happen to be one of those people whose memory shuts down under pressure. The answers would come to me in the middle of the night in my sleep! Besides, I am a millionaire.

Terry Pratchett
Memories, Sleep, Night
ALCS News, May 2006.

Wikipedia, eh? Must be accurate then.

Terry Pratchett
Wikipedia, Accurate
"Meeting Mr Pratchett". The Age Interview, www.theage.com.au. February 17, 2007.

While a book has got to be worthwhile from the point of view of the reader it's got to be worthwhile from the point of view of the writer as well.

Terry Pratchett
Book, Views, Worthwhile

Perhaps, if you knew you were going to die, your senses crammed in as much detail as they could while they still had the chance.

Terry Pratchett
Details, Chance, Stills
Terry Pratchett (2011). “Truckers: The First Book of the Nomes”, p.27, Random House

Ritual and ceremony in their due times kept the world under the sky and the stars in their courses. It was astonishing what ritual and ceremony could do.

Terry Pratchett
Stars, Sky, World
"Pyramids" by Terry Pratchett, Harper, (p. 77), January 200.

Around it are those countries which, according to History, constitute the civilised world ie, a world that can support historians

Terry Pratchett
Country, History, Support

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

Terry Pratchett
Long, Fiction, Done
Source: www.bookbrowse.com

Oh dear me, the Booker people don't like me. I don't care. I have been given an award for being taken not seriously, and I am very, very pleased about that.

Terry Pratchett
Taken, Awards, People

Money is an unavoidable consequence, but it isn't the reason I write; if it was, I wouldn't have written any of the YA books, because advances in that field are small compared to what I'd got now for an 'adult' DW.

Terry Pratchett
Book, Writing, Adults

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