Philip Pullman

Accepting the Carnegie Medal in 1996: "All stories teach, whether the storyteller intends them to or not. They teach the world we create. They teach the morality we live by. They teach it much more effectively than moral precepts and instructions ... We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. 'Thou shalt not' is soon forgotten, but 'Once upon a time' lasts forever." Show less «

So I'm caught between the words 'atheistic' and 'agnostic'. I've got no evidence whatever for believing in a God. But I know that all the things I do know are very small compared with the things that I don't know. So maybe there is a God out there. All I know is that if there is, he hasn't shown himself on earth. Show less «

[his reply to the question "what do you do about writer's block?"] "I don't believe in it. All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don't get plumber's block, and doctors don't get doctor's block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?" Show less «

This recent Doctor Who (2005), since Russell T. Davies came back and started having a hand in it, has been wonderful. I've really enjoyed it. David Tennant is terrific. Billie Piper was wonderful as Rose. Show less «

[on the conclusion of the "Dark Materials" Trilogy] The God who dies is the God of burners of heretics, the hangers of witches, the persecutors of Jews, the officials who recently flogged that poor girl in Nigeria for having been forced to have sex - all these people claim to know with absolute certainty that their God wants them to do these things. Well, I take them at their word, and I say in response...that God needs to die. Show less «

[talking about his "His Dark Materials" trilogy] I think what I would say to the people who criticise me for besmirching their religion and telling children that they should all go out and be Satanists is simply this. What qualities in human beings does the story celebrate and what qualities does it condemn? And an honest reading of the story would have to admit that the qualities that the story celebrates and praises are love, kindness, tolerance, courage, open-heartedness; and the qualities that the story condemns are cruelty, intolerance, zealotry, fanaticism. Well who could quarrel with that? Show less «

We need joy, we need a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives, we need a connection with the universe, we need all the things the Kingdom of Heaven used to promise us but failed to deliver. Show less «

[Neil] Gaiman has a rich imagination... and an ability to tackle large themes.

Stories are the most important thing in the world. Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all. Show less «