Terry Pratchett (Writer)

No, I happen to be one of those people whoseshuts 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 people

In ancient timeswere worshiped as gods; they have not forgotten this.

— Terry Pratchett god

As they say in Discworld, we are trying to unravel the Mighty Infinite using a language which was designed to tell one another where the fresh fruit was.

— Terry Pratchett world

, eh? Must be accurate then!

— Terry Pratchett

doesn't happen in chapters — at least, not regular ones. Nor do movies.didn't write in chapters. I can see what their purpose is in children's books ("I'll read to the end of the chapter, and then you must go to sleep") but I'm blessed if I know what function they serve in books for adults.

— Terry Pratchett books

As for ... I suspect it'll never get a US publication. It seemed to frighten US publishers. They don't seem to understand it. That seems to point up a significant difference between Europeans and Americans:A European says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with me? An American says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with him? I make no suggestion that one side or other is right, but observation over many years leads me to believe it is true.

— Terry Pratchett man

The space between the young readers eyeballs and the printed page is a holy place and officialdom should trample all over it at their peril.

— Terry Pratchett age

I dare say that quite a few people have contemplated death for reasons that much later seemed to them to be quite minor. If we are to live in a world where a socially acceptable "early death" can be allowed, it must be allowed as a result of careful consideration. Let us consider me as a test case. As I have said, I would like to die peacefully withon my iPod before the disease takes me over and I hope that will not be for quite some time to come, because if I knew that I could die at any time I wanted, then suddenly every day would be as precious as a million pounds. If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice.

— Terry Pratchett life

I don't like the place at all. It's all wrong. An imposition on the Landscape...

— Terry Pratchett wrong

I save about twenty drafts — that's ten meg of disc space — and the last one contains all the final alterations. Once it has been printed out and received by the publishers, there's a cry here of 'Tough shit, literary researchers of the future, try getting a proper job!' and the rest are wiped.

— Terry Pratchett future

I keep vaguely wondering what Macs are like, but the ones I've seen spend too much time being friendly.

— Terry Pratchett time

Never trust any complicated cocktail that remains perfectly clear until the last ingredient goes in, and then immediately clouds.

— Terry Pratchett trust

"Educational" refers to the process, not the object. Although, come to think of it, some of my teachers could easily have been replaced by a cheeseburger.

— Terry Pratchett think

I don't like the place at all. It's all wrong. An imposition on the Landscape. I reckon that Stonehenge was build by the contemporary equivalent of Microsoft, whereas Avebury was definitely an Apple circle.

— Terry Pratchett contemporary

, as you know, never got round to starting his home page.

— Terry Pratchett art

Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until , no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...

— Terry Pratchett death

'They can ta'k our lives but they can never ta'k our freedom!' Now there's a battle cry not designed by a clear thinker...

— Terry Pratchett freedom

There should be a notice ahead of the movie that says 'This movie is PG. Can you read? You are a Parent. Do you understand what Guidance is? Or are you just another stupid toddler who thinks they're an adult simply because they've grown older and, unfortunately, have developed fully-functioning sexual organs? Would you like some committee somewhere to decide *everything* for you? Get a damn grip, will you? And shut the wretched kid up !'

— Terry Pratchett sex

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

It's amazing how fast gold works.

— Terry Pratchett work

Oh dear, I'm feeling political today. It's just that it's dawned on me that 'zero tolerance' only seems to mean putting extra police in poor, run-down areas, and not in the Stock Exchange.

— Terry Pratchett change

Go on, prove me wrong. Destroy the fabric of the universe. See if I care.

— Terry Pratchett universe

I once absent-mindedly ordered Three Mile Island dressing in a restaurant and, with great presence of mind, they brought Thousand Island Dressing and a bottle of chili sauce

— Terry Pratchett mind

Oh, come on. Revelation was a mushroom dream that belonged in the Apocrypha. The New Testament is basically about what happened when God got religion

— Terry Pratchett religion

What your soldier wants -- really, really wants -- is no-one shooting back at him.

— Terry Pratchett you

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 abcesses 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 music

A true beanie should have a propellor on the top.

— Terry Pratchett true

This isn't life in the fast lane, it's life in the oncoming traffic.

— Terry Pratchett life

I mean, I wouldn't pay more than a couple of quid to see me, and I'm me.

— Terry Pratchett

I think that sick people in Ankh-Morpork generally go to a vet. It's generally a better bet. There's more pressure on a vet to get it right. People say "it was god's will" when granny dies, but they get angry when they lose a cow.

— Terry Pratchett god

I have to admit that I drive past Bridgwater quite regularly. And fast.

— Terry Pratchett past

What you have here is an example of that well known phenomenon, A Bookshop Assistant Who Knows Buggerall But Won't Admit It (probably some kind of arts graduate).

— Terry Pratchett art

I staggered into a Manchester bar late one night on a tour and the waitress said "You look as if you need a Screaming Orgasm". At the time this was the last thing on my mind...

— Terry Pratchett time

In Reading [England] there is this thing called the IDR, short for "Inner Distribution Road", which is bureaucratese for "Big thing that cost a lot of money and relieves traffic problems, provided all your traffic wants to orbit the town centre permanently". It's a 2-3 lane dual carriageway that goes round the town centre. It has lots of roundabouts, an overhead section, a couple of spare motorway-like exits (that's British motorways -- y'know, the roundabout with the main road going under it), and a thing called the Watlington Street Gyratory, where you have to get in lane for your intended destination about three years and two corners before you get there with no signposting. I used to cycle along it every day to get to school, before I fell off at 35 mph. [Kids! Don't try this at home!] I know it well. I believe it is impossible to leave Reading heading west.

— Terry Pratchett money

I didn't go to university. Didn't even finish A-levels. But I have sympathy for those who did.

— Terry Pratchett path

"Out of Print" is bookseller speak for "We can't be hedgehogged".

— Terry Pratchett books

I was thinking of 'duh?' in the sense of 'a sentence containing several words more than three letters long, and possibly requiring general knowledge or a sense of history that extends past last Tuesday, has been used in my presence.'

— Terry Pratchett knowledge

Bognor has always meant to me the quintessential English seaside experience (before all this global warming stuff): driving in the rain to get there, walking around in the rain looking for something to do when you're there, and driving home in the rain again...

— Terry Pratchett war

I must confess the activities of the UK governments for the past couple of years have been watched with frank admiration and amazement by Lord Vetinari. Outright theft as a policy had never occurred to him.

— Terry Pratchett men

I'm referred to, I see, as 'the biggest banker in modern publishing'. Now there's a line that needed the celebrated Guardian proof-reading.

— Terry Pratchett reading

I always thought Detritus would be good at: "I bet you're wondrin' how many time I fired dis crossbow--"

— Terry Pratchett time

Mind you, the Elizabethans had so many words for the female genitals that it is quite hard to speak a sentence of modern English without inadvertently mentioning at least three of them.

— Terry Pratchett words

Currently there's five machines permanently networked here. They all contain the serious core stuff. A couple of the machines are pensioned off 486s, with little other value now. Plus there's two Jaz drives in the building and the portable also carries a fair amount of stuff. Plus every Friday a man comes around and carves all the new stuff onto stone slabs and buries them in the garden... I think I'm okay.

— Terry Pratchett work

If I heeded all the advice I've had over the years, I'd have written 18 books about Rincewind.

— Terry Pratchett books

Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb -- they're often students, for heaven's sake.

— Terry Pratchett heaven

Death isn't online. If he was, there would be a sudden drop in the death rate. Although it'd be interesting to see if he'd post things like: DON'T YOU THINK I SOUND LIKE JAMES EARL JONES?

— Terry Pratchett death

The net software here did its meltdown trick again at the weekend (it happens about once every six months -- if only everything was as reliable as WordPerfect 4.2, which only chews up a novel about once every two or three years...)

— Terry Pratchett war

I'd like to stand up for the rights of people who put everything on their burger -- chutney, mustard, pickle, mustard pickle, tomato sauce... It is common knowledge in my family that I can't tell the difference between a veggie burger and a meat one, because the ratio of burger to pickles is so high. [either misquoted or mis-thought, since not to be able to tell would mean the burger:pickles ratio is so low]

— Terry Pratchett knowledge

Mort isn't fashionable UK movie material -- there're no parts in it for Hugh or Emma, it's not set in Sheffield, and no one shoves drugs up their bum...

— Terry Pratchett art

Too many people want to have written.

— Terry Pratchett people

DW is based on a slew of old myths, which reach their most 'refined' form in Hindu mythology, which in turn of course derived from the original Star Trek episode 'Planet of Wobbly Rocks where the Security Guard Got Shot'.

— Terry Pratchett mythology

Eight years involved with the nuclear industry have taught me that when nothing can possibly go wrong and every avenue has been covered, then is the time to buy a house on the next continent.

— Terry Pratchett time

Up until now I'd always thought RSI meant 'I hate my damn job'.

— Terry Pratchett hate

This book had two authors, and they were both the same person.

— Terry Pratchett book

They called themselves the Munrungs. It meant The People, or The True Human Beings. It's what most people call themselves, to begin with. And then one day the tribe meets some other People or, if it's not been a good day, The Enemy. If only they'd think up a name like Some More True Human Beings, it'd save a lot of trouble later on.

— Terry Pratchett people

On the fifth day the Governor of the town called all the tribal chieftains to an audience in the market square, to hear their grievances. He didn't always do anything about them, but at least they got heard, and he nodded a lot, and everyone felt better about it at least until they got home. This is politics.

— Terry Pratchett politics

Keep 'em busy. That was one of the three rules of being chief that old Grimm had passed on to him. Act confidently, never say 'I don't know,' and when all else fails, keep 'em busy.

— Terry Pratchett rules

I wish that the people who sing about the deeds of heroes would think about the people who have to clear up after them.

— Terry Pratchett people

Anyway, just because you're sworn enemies doesn't mean you can't be friends, does it?

— Terry Pratchett friends

When they're standing right in front of you, kings are a kind of speech impediment.

— Terry Pratchett men

'I can't have your subjects throwing my family over the balcony, that would never do.' 'Good,' said Snibril. 'I'll do it myself.'

— Terry Pratchett family

'Whose side are they on?' said Brocando. 'Sides? Their own, I suppose, just like everyone else.'

— Terry Pratchett

'Stop that!' he shouted. 'You're soldiers! You're not supposed to fight!'

— Terry Pratchett fight

Most armies are in fact run by their sergeants — the officers are there just to give things a bit of tone and prevent warfare becoming a mere lower-class brawl.

— Terry Pratchett war

The Deftmenes are mad and the Dumii are sane, thought Snibril, and that's just the same as being mad except that it's quieter. If only you could mix them together, you'd end up with normal people.

— Terry Pratchett people

Normally its narrow streets were crowded with stalls, and people from all over the Carpet. They'd all be trying to cheat one another in that open-and-above-board way known as 'doing business'.

— Terry Pratchett people

The sign outside the shop said Apothecary, which meant that the shop was owned by a sort of early chemist, who would give you herbs and things until you got better or at least stopped getting any worse.

— Terry Pratchett you

'Well ... welcome. My house is your house', his brow suddenly furrowed and he looked worried, 'although only in a metaphorical sense, you understand, because I would not, much as I always admired your straightforward approach, and indeed your forthright stance, actually give you my house, it being the only house I have, and therefore the term is being extended in an, as it were, gratuitous fashion —'

— Terry Pratchett war

'What would Deftmenes be if we went around obeying orders all the time?' 'They might be ruling the Carpet,' said Pismire. 'Ha!' said Brocando, 'but the trouble about obeying orders is, it becomes a habit. And then everything depends on who's giving the orders.'

— Terry Pratchett time

'Waiting is the worst part,' said Pismire. 'No it isn't,' said Owlglass, who wasn't even being trusted to hold a sword. 'I expect that having long sharp swords stuck in you is the worst part.'

— Terry Pratchett art

'But we should kill him!' 'No. You've been listen to Brocando too often,' said Bane. Brocando bristled. 'You know what he is! Why not kill--' he began, but he was interrupted. 'Because it doesn't matter what he is. It matters what we are.'

— Terry Pratchett kill

Our garden was debated territory between five local cats, and we'd heard that the best way to keep other cats out of the garden was to have one yourself. A moment's rational thought here will spot the slight flaw in this reasoning.

— Terry Pratchett men

Boot-faced cats aren't born but made, often because they've tried to outstare or occasionally rape a speeding car and have been repaired by a vet who just pulled all the bits together and stuck the stitches in where there was room.

— Terry Pratchett cats

Cats don't hunt seals. They would if they knew what they were and where to find them. But they don't, so that's all right.

— Terry Pratchett right

It's an interesting fact that fewer than 17 % of Real cats end their lives with the same name they started with. Much family effort goes into selecting one at the start ("She looks like a Winnifred to me"), and the as the years roll by it suddenly finds itself being called Meepo or Ratbag.

— Terry Pratchett art

Next comes the realist phase ("After all, from a purely geometrical point of view a cat is only a tube with a door at the top.").

— Terry Pratchett wit

Everyone's heard of Erwin Schrodinger's famous thought experiment. You put a cat in a box with a bottle of poison, which many people would suggest is about as far as you need to go.

— Terry Pratchett people

Consider the situation. There you are, forehead like a set of balconies, worrying about the long-term effects of all this new 'fire' stuff on the environment, you're being chased and eaten by most of the planet's large animals, and suddenly tiny versions of one of the worst of them wanders into the cave and starts to purr.

— Terry Pratchett art

Everything makes sense a bit at a time. But when you try to think of it all at once, it comes out wrong.

— Terry Pratchett time

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 you

'You're not going to die, are you sir?' he said. 'Of course I am. Everyone is. That's what being alive is all about.'

— Terry Pratchett live

The way to deal with an impossible task was to chop it down into a number of merely very difficult tasks, and break each one of them into a group of horribly hard tasks, and each of them into tricky jobs, and each of them...

— Terry Pratchett job

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

— Terry Pratchett people

Suicide was against the law. Johnny had wondered why. It meant that if you missed, or the gas ran out, or the rope broke, you could get locked up in prison to show you that life was really very jolly and thoroughly worth living.

— Terry Pratchett life

Who would not rather be a rising ape than a falling angel?

— Terry Pratchett sin

I don't have much truck with the " is the cause of most of our wars" school of thought because that is manifestly done by mad, manipulative and power-hungry men who cloak their ambition in God.

— Terry Pratchett war

I don't think I've found God, but I may have seen where gods come from.

— Terry Pratchett god

There is a rumour going around that I have found God. I think this is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist. But it is true that in an interview I gave recently I did describe a sudden, distinct feeling I had one hectic day that everything I was doing was right and things were happening as they should. It seemed like the memory of a voice and it came wrapped in its own brief little bubble of tranquillity. I'm not used to this. As a fantasy writer I create fresh gods and philosophies almost with every new book … But since contracting Alzheimer's disease I have spent my long winter walks trying to work out what it is that I really, if anything, believe.

— Terry Pratchett god

Evolution was far more thrilling to me than the biblical account. Who would not rather be a rising ape than a falling angel? To my juvenile eyeswas proved true every day. It doesn't take much to make us flip back into monkeys again.

— Terry Pratchett sin

I asked a teacher what the opposite of a miracle was and she, without thinking, I assume, said it was an act of God. You shouldn't say something like that to the kind of kid who will grow up to be a writer; we have long memories.

— Terry Pratchett thinking

As a boy I had a clear image of the Almighty: He had a tail coat and pinstriped trousers, black, slicked-down hair and an aquiline nose. On the whole, I was probably a rather strange child, and I wonder what my life might have been like if I'd met a decent theologian when I was nine.

— Terry Pratchett life

I don't believe. I never have, not in big beards in the sky.

— Terry Pratchett believe

Belief was never mentioned at home, but right actions were taught by daily example. Possibly because of this, I have never disliked . I think it has some purpose in our evolution.I don't have much truck with the "religion is the cause of most of our wars" school of thought because that is manifestly done by mad, manipulative and power-hungry men who cloak their ambition in God. I number believers of all sorts among my friends. Some of them are praying for me. I'm happy they wish to do this, I really am, but I think science may be a better bet.

— Terry Pratchett religion

This section does not cite its .You can help Wikiquote by introducing appropriate citations.

— Terry Pratchett quote

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

— Terry Pratchett art

Joy is to fun what the deep sea is to a puddle. It’s a feeling inside that can hardly be contained.

— Terry Pratchett fun

Share your thoughts on Terry Pratchett quotes with the community: