Terry Pratchett Quotes About Language

Quotes about: Language

• As they say in Discworld, we are trying to unravel the Mighty Infinite using a language which was designed to tell one another where the fresh fruit was.

  Terry Pratchett

  Trying, Fruit, Language

  Radio Show "Relatively Einstein" ("Fantasy Physics", Episode 3), www.bbc.co.uk. January 18, 2005.

• ASTONISHING, said Death. REALLY ASTONISHING. LET ME PUT FORWARD ANOTHER SUGGESTION: THAT YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A LUCKY SPECIES OF APE THAT IS TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THE COMPLEXITIES OF CREATION VIA A LANGUAGE THAT EVOLVED IN ORDER TO TELL ONE ANOTHER WHERE THE RIPE FRUIT WAS.

  Terry Pratchett

  Order, Trying, Suggestions

• Rincewind could scream for mercy in nineteen languages, and just scream in another forty-four.

  Terry Pratchett

  Nineteen, Four, Language

• It is at this point that normal language gives up, and goes and has a drink.

  Terry Pratchett

  Giving Up, Normal, Language

  Terry Pratchett (2008). “The Colour Of Magic: (Discworld Novel 1)”, p.209, Random House

• It must be powerful language if you canna make oout what the heel it’s goin’ on aboot!

  Terry Pratchett

  Powerful, Language, Heels

• Ah," said Mr Pin. "Right. I remember. You are concerned citizens." He knew about concerned citizens. Wherever they were, they all spoke the same private language, where 'traditional values' meant 'hang someone'.

  Terry Pratchett

  Remember You, Remembers You, Citizens

• In an instant he became aware that the tourist was about to try his own peculiar brand of linguistics, which meant that he would speak loudly and slowly in his own language.

  Terry Pratchett

  Trying, Tourists, Peculiar

  Terry Pratchett (2008). “The Colour Of Magic: (Discworld Novel 1)”, p.269, Random House

• In fact, very few people on the face of the planet know that the very shape of the M25 forms the sigil *odegra* in the language of the Black Priesthood of Ancient Mu, and means 'Hail the Great Beast, Devourer of Worlds'.

  Terry Pratchett

  Mean, People, Black

  Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett (2011). “Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch”, p.15, Harper Collins

• I think perhaps the most important problem is that we are trying to understand the fundamental workings of the universe via a language devised for telling one another when the best fruit is.

  Terry Pratchett

  Thinking, Important, Trying

• Magicians and scientists are, on the face of it, poles apart. Certainly, a group of people who often dress strangely, live in a world of their own, speak a specialized language and frequently make statements that appear to be in flagrant breach of common sense have nothing in common with a group of people who often dress strangely, speak a specialized language, live in ... er.

  Terry Pratchett

  Common Sense, People, Magic

  "The Science of Discworld". Book by Terry Pratchett, 1999.

• My programming language was solder.

  Terry Pratchett

  Language, Programming, Programming Languages

  On his early computers, from a talk "When I Were A Lad, We Used To Dream of 64K" at the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Scotland, August 2005.

• In my early teens, I read every bound volume of the magazine Punch. Every writer of any distinction in the English language, and I mean including America and England, at some time wrote for Punch. Jerome K. Jerome, who wrote Three Men In A Boat, I loved. I was very impressed when I read a piece by Mark Twain in Punch, and realized that despite the fact that they were on different continents, Jerome K. Jerome and Mark Twain had the same kind of laconic, laid-back, "The human race is damn stupid, but quite interesting" attitude. They were almost talking with the same voice.

  Terry Pratchett

  Attitude, Stupid, Mean

  "Terry Pratchett on his latest novel, his medical diagnosis, and more". Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. November 16, 2012.

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