Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman CBE, FRSLis an English writer. He is the author of several best-selling books, most notably the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials and the fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. In 2008, The Times named Pullman one of the "50 greatest British writers since 1945"...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionYoung Adult Author
Date of Birth19 October 1946
clever book perfect
The moment in the account of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis is when they realize they're naked and try and cover themselves with fig leaves. That seemed to me a perfect allegory of what happened in the 20th century with regard to literary modernism. Literary modernism grew out of a sense that, “Oh my god! I'm telling a story! Oh, that can't be the case, because I'm a clever person. I'm a literary person! What am I going to do to distinguish myself?...a lot of modernism does seem to come out of a fear of being thought an ordinary storyteller.
book killing
My books are about killing God.
all-things devilish
All things from the north are devilish.
looks stories way
I wanted the chance to look again at very famous stories and see what made them work well, whether there were any ways in which they could be improved. Because the great thing about fairy tales and folk tales is that there is no authentic text.
beautiful children simple
When it comes to telling children stories, they don’t need simple language. They need beautiful language.
his-dark-materials ifs
Everything has a meaning, if only we could read it.
life coffee pistols
She longed for cutlasses, pistols, and brandy; she had to make do with coffee, and pencils, and verbs.
heart once-upon-a-time might
Thou shalt not' might reach the head, but it takes 'Once upon a time' to reach the heart.
writing should-have truth-is
There is time, and there is beyond time. History belongs to time, but truth belongs to what is beyond time. In writing of things as they should have been, you are letting truth into history. You are the word of God.
life-is-hard life-is hard
Life is hard . . . but we cling to it all the same
knows
But I know that all the things I do know are very small compared with the things that I don't know
writing training form
What I do say is that I can write verse, and that the writing of verse in strict form is the best possible training for writing good prose
ideas imagination urban
Well, I have an idea, usually a visual image of some sort. A setting. A particular, I don't know, urban scene, a particular time of day. Something that grips my imagination for some reason.
book america people
I've been surprised by how little criticism I've got. Harry Potter's been taking all the flak. I'm a great fan of J.K. Rowling, but the people—mainly from America's Bible Belt—who complain that Harry Potter promotes Satanism or witchcraft obviously haven't got enough in their lives. Meanwhile, I've been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God.