The function of a book or a poem or a story is to delight, to enchant, to beguile.
Philip PullmanRead
After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Stories are essential for human experience, just after our basic needs.
In this quote, Philip Pullman emphasizes the importance of storytelling in our lives, suggesting that after basic necessities like food, shelter, and companionship, the most vital aspect that fulfills us is the sharing and experiencing of stories. Stories connect us, inspire us, and help us make sense of the world, underscoring the deep human need for narrative and connection through shared experiences.
Themes
StoriesNarrativeHuman ExperienceCompanionshipImportance
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about creativity, one might say, 'As Philip Pullman asserted, stories are the thing we need most in the world.'
More from Philip Pullman
All quotes →Education and health were always matters of charity. You educated children and you helped the sick because they were good things to do, not because you were going to make money out of them. If you let the money-making principle, the profit-seeking motive, anywhere near education and health, things go bad.
Philip PullmanRead
To get the best out of life here ...Good grief. There's plenty of it about, so indulge. Give yourself some thing to remember. Fall in love. Fall out of love. Gamble. Get drunk. See how long you can stay awake. Go for long walks at night. Discover what you're afraid of doing, and then do it.
Philip PullmanRead
People should decide on the books' meanings for themselves. They'll find a story that attacks such things as cruelty, oppression, intolerance, unkindness, narrow-mindedness, and celebrates love, kindness, open-mindedness, tolerance, curiosity, human intelligence.
Philip PullmanRead
I told him I was going to betray you, and betray Lyra, and he believed me because I was corrupt and full of wickedness; he looked so deep I felt sure he'd see the truth. But I lied too well. I was lying with every nerve and fiber and everything I'd ever done...I wanted him to find no good in me, and he didn't. There is none.
Philip PullmanRead
Lyra learns to her great cost that fantasy isn’t enough. She has been lying all her life, telling stories to people, making up fantasies, and suddenly she comes to a point where that’s not enough. All she can do is tell the truth. She tells the truth about her childhood, about the experiences she had in Oxford, and that is what saves her. True experience, not fantasy - reality, not lies - is what saves us in the end.
Philip PullmanRead
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