A selection of my favourite quotes by the british author Philip Pullmann.

Phillip pullman’s answer to a Guardian writer survey titled “Ten rules for writing fiction”:

My main rule is to say no to things like this, which tempt me away from my proper work.

His answer to Why Children should read taken from another Guardian article “Philip Pullman: a life in writing”:

For the same reason that I think it’s important that they breathe, eat, drink, sleep, run about, fool around, and have people who love and look after them. It’s part of what makes us fully human. Some people manage to get through life without reading; but I know that if I’d had to do that, an enormous part of my mind, or my soul if you like, would be missing. No one should be without the chance to let their soul grow.

I am temped to quote his whole Talk for the National Novel Writing Month, but this one made me laugh out loud:

I don’t know where they [inspirations] come from, but I know where they come to: they come to my desk, and if I’m not there, they go away again.

So I’ll better stop now and go to my studio; there is some printmaking to do.