Terry Pratchett quotes

Born
28 April 1948 Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England.

Died
12 March 2015.

Occupation
Author.

Terry Pratchett was an English author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his Discworld series of 41 novels.

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

I don’t think about the end game. I’ve got lots to occupy my mind. It’s the rage that keeps me going.
– Terry Pratchett

Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree.
– Terry Pratchett

The intelligence of the creature known as a crowd, is the square root of the number of people in it.
– Terry Pratchett

Fantasy is uni-age. You can start it in the creche, and it follows you to death.
– Terry Pratchett

Sooner or later we’re all someone’s dog.
– Terry Pratchett

This isn’t life in the fast lane, it’s life in the oncoming traffic.
– Terry Pratchett

Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.
– Terry Pratchett

It’s not morbid to talk about death. Most people don’t worry about death, they worry about a bad death.
– Terry Pratchett

I think it does Discworld good if I don’t write about it all the time: sometimes you have to get it out of your system.
– Terry Pratchett

Journalism makes you think fast. You have to speak to people in all walks of life. Especially local journalism.
– Terry Pratchett

The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head.
– Terry Pratchett

Personally, I think the best motto for an educational establishment is: ‘Or Would You Rather Be a Mule?’
– Terry Pratchett

In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.
– Terry Pratchett

Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.
– Terry Pratchett

Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don’t find out til too late that he’s been playing with two queens all along.
– Terry Pratchett

You can’t trample infidels when you’re a tortoise. I mean, all you could do is give them a meaningful look.
– Terry Pratchett

‘Nation’ was one that I’d have killed myself if I hadn’t written it. It was absolutely important to me that I wrote it. It was good for my soul.
– Terry Pratchett

‘Discworld’ is taking something that you know is ridiculous and treating it as if it is serious, to see if something interesting happens when you do so.
– Terry Pratchett

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it’s not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.
– Terry Pratchett

The pen is mightier than the sword if the sword is very short, and the pen is very sharp.
– Terry Pratchett

I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
– Terry Pratchett

An author writes a book, and that’s the book at that point. And if the author writes the book again, then somehow something has gone wrong, if you see what I mean.
– Terry Pratchett

It occurred to me that at one point it was like I had two diseases – one was Alzheimer’s, and the other was knowing I had Alzheimer’s.
– Terry Pratchett

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

It’s not worth doing something unless you were doing something that someone, somewere, would much rather you weren’t doing.
– Terry Pratchett

Opera happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong.
– Terry Pratchett

I’ve often felt depressed; everyone feels depressed.
– Terry Pratchett

What is normal? Normal was yesterday. If you lose a leg, one day you’re hopping around on one leg, so you know the difference.
– Terry Pratchett

I think the best thing I ever did with my life was stand up and say I’ve got Alzheimer’s.
– Terry Pratchett

If it wasn’t for the fun and money, I really don’t know why I’d bother.
– Terry Pratchett

Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
– Terry Pratchett

He was the sort of person who stood on mountaintops during thunderstorms in wet copper armour shouting ‘All the Gods are bastards.’
– Terry Pratchett

It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living.
– Terry Pratchett

Taxation is just a sophisticated way of demanding money with menaces.
– Terry Pratchett