Terry Pratchett quotes

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

It seems that when you have cancer you are a brave battler against the disease, but when you have Alzheimer's you are an old fart. That's how people see you. It makes you feel quite alone.

Anger is wonderful. It keeps you going. I'm angry about bankers. About the government.

The ideal death, I think, is what was the ideal Victorian death, you know, with your grandchildren around you, a bit of sobbing. And you say goodbye to your loved ones, making certain that one of them has been left behind to look after the shop.

The baby boomers are getting older, and will stay older for longer. And they will run right into the dementia firing range. How will a society cope? Especially a society that can't so readily rely on those stable family relationships that traditionally provided the backbone of care?

If the government ever imposes a tax on books - and I wouldn't put it past them - I'm in dead trouble.

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

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

My experience in Amsterdam is that cyclists ride where the hell they like and aim in a state of rage at all pedestrians while ringing their bell loudly, the concept of avoiding people being foreign to them.

I was a very keen reader of science fiction, and during the time I was going to libraries, it was good, written by people who knew their science.

Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.

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

If you are going to write, say, fantasy - stop reading fantasy. You've already read too much. Read other things; read westerns, read history, read anything that seems interesting, because if you only read fantasy and then you start to write fantasy, all you're going to do is recycle the same old stuff and move it around a bit.

I don't believe in the war god of the Israelites. He's a bogeyman. Jesus preached the golden rule, by and large.

Freedom without limits is just a word.

I got into science fiction by being interested in astronomy first.

I don't believe in the war god of the Israelites. He's a bogeyman. Jesus preached the golden rule, by and large.

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

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

It seems sensible to me that we should look to the medical profession, that over the centuries has helped us to live longer and healthier lives, to help us die peacefully among our loved ones in our own home without a long stay in God's waiting room.

Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.

There is a soak-the-rich attitude in the air, a feeling that if you have a lot of money you must have got it by some ghastly means. I can quite happily say there was never any family money. All the money we got was mine, just from writing books.

In my heart, I'm just a kid from the council houses. I can remember the old cottage and my dad coming round with the tin bath. I'm not a rich man.

I am a great fan of science, but I cannot do a quadratic equation.

I believe it should be possible for someone stricken with a serious and ultimately fatal illness to choose to die peacefully with medical help, rather than suffer.

The baby boomers are getting older, and will stay older for longer. And they will run right into the dementia firing range. How will a society cope? Especially a society that can't so readily rely on those stable family relationships that traditionally provided the backbone of care?

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

I've always felt that what I have going for me is not my imagination, because everyone has an imagination. What I have is a relentlessly controlled imagination. What looks like wild invention is actually quite carefully calculated.

Anger is wonderful. It keeps you going. I'm angry about bankers. About the government.

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

If it wasn't for the fun and money, I really don't know why I'd bother.

Previous generations understood about death, and undoubtedly would have seen a reasonable amount of death. Once you get into the Victorian era, you might well have seen the funerals of many of your siblings before you were very old.

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

I am certain no one sets out to be cruel, but our treatment of the elderly ill seems to have no philosophy to it. As a society, we should establish whether we have a policy of life at any cost.

I was a very keen reader of science fiction.

It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It's called living.

Knowing that you are going to die is, I suspect, the beginning of wisdom.

Seven hundred thousand people who have dementia in this country are not heard. I'm fortunate; I can be heard. Regrettably, it's amazing how people listen if you stand up in public and give away $1 million for research into the disease, as I have done.