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" I have to write because if I don't get something down then after a while I feel it's going to bang the side of my head off. "
Terry Pratchett
Write
Side
Head
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" I became a journalist at 17. A few hours later, I saw my first dead body, which was somewhat... colourful. That's when I learned you can go on throwing up after you run out of things to throw up. "
Terry Pratchett
Run
Body
Dead
" You can't trample infidels when you're a tortoise. I mean, all you could do is give them a meaningful look. "
Terry Pratchett
Meaningful
Give
You
" 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. "
Terry Pratchett
Alone
You
People
" I got into science fiction by being interested in astronomy first. "
Terry Pratchett
Science Fiction
Astronomy
Science
" The most watched programme on the BBC, after the news, is probably 'Doctor Who.' What has happened is that science fiction has been subsumed into modern literature. There are grandparents out there who speak Klingon, who are quite capable of holding down a job. No one would think twice now about a parallel universe. "
Terry Pratchett
Speak
News
Job
" Never trust any complicated cocktail that remains perfectly clear until the last ingredient goes in, and then immediately clouds. "
Terry Pratchett
Last
Never
Complicated
" As far as I'm concerned, I'm a writer who's writing books, and therefore, I don't want to die. You'd miss the end of the book wouldn't you? You can't die with an unfinished book. "
Terry Pratchett
Die
Book
Want
" The pen is mightier than the sword if the sword is very short, and the pen is very sharp. "
Terry Pratchett
Short
Sharp
Sword
" Fantasy is uni-age. You can start it in the creche, and it follows you to death. "
Terry Pratchett
You
Start
Death
" I believe everyone should have a good death. You know, with your grandchildren around you, a bit of sobbing. Because after all, tears are appropriate on a death bed. And you say goodbye to your loved ones, making certain that one of them has been left behind to look after the shop. "
Terry Pratchett
Death
Believe
Tears
" The intelligence of the creature known as a crowd, is the square root of the number of people in it. "
Terry Pratchett
Number
Intelligence
People
" 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. "
Terry Pratchett
Going
Good
People
" 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. "
Terry Pratchett
Death
Good
Evil
" Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind. "
Terry Pratchett
Sign
Sure
Marks
" 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
Write
Think
Good
" I got quite annoyed after the Haiti earthquake. A baby was taken from the wreckage and people said it was a miracle. It would have been a miracle had God stopped the earthquake. More wonderful was that a load of evolved monkeys got together to save the life of a child that wasn't theirs. "
Terry Pratchett
People
Child
Life
" I know three people who have got better after a brain tumour. I haven't heard of anyone who's got better from Alzheimer's. "
Terry Pratchett
Got
Brain
Three
" One thing that writers have in common is that they are readers first. They have read lots and lots of stuff, because they're just infested with lots of stuff. "
Terry Pratchett
Because
One Thing
Just
" Christ managed to boil down an awful lot of commandments to a few very simple rules for living. It's when you go backwards through the 'begats' and the Garden of Eden, and you start thinking, 'Hang on, that's a big punishment for eating one lousy apple... There's a human-rights issue.' "
Terry Pratchett
Apple
Rules
Simple
" Neither of my parents went to church, but they did everything that you needed to do to be Christian. That's something a Quaker would call an intimation of the divine. "
Terry Pratchett
Divine
You
Christian
" I have a living will and I have friends, and I have money and I have hope. "
Terry Pratchett
Living
Friends
Hope
" I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it. "
Terry Pratchett
Thinking
Box
Evidence
" It's not morbid to talk about death. Most people don't worry about death, they worry about a bad death. "
Terry Pratchett
Bad
People
Most
" That's the most terrible thing about being an author - standing there at your mother's funeral, but you don't switch the author off. So your own innermost thoughts are grist for the mill. Who was it said - one of the famous lady novelists - 'unhappy is the family that contains an author'? "
Terry Pratchett
Family
Thoughts
Mother
" Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong. "
Terry Pratchett
Fantasy
Bicycle
Exercise
" He was the sort of person who stood on mountaintops during thunderstorms in wet copper armour shouting 'All the Gods are bastards.' "
Terry Pratchett
Who
Gods
Copper
" Truthfully, without over-egging it, as I often do, the library and journalism, those things made me who I am. "
Terry Pratchett
I Am
Library
Me
" 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 eyes, Darwin was proved true every day. It doesn't take much to make us flip back into monkeys again. "
Terry Pratchett
Evolution
Angel
Day
" I think I work much harder on the children's books. I suppose I enjoy that. I find it interesting that although there are more than 30 books in the Discworld series, it is the four that were written for children which have won the awards. I've never been quite certain why this is. "
Terry Pratchett
Work
Think
Children
" Plot exposition that can be gently wound out by the authorial voice and internal monologue of a character in the length of a page has to be delivered in a matter of seconds on the stage. "
Terry Pratchett
Stage
Matter
Character