Quote

The shortest unit of time in the multiverse is the New York Second, defined as the period of time between the traffic lights turning green and the cab behind you honking.

Terry Pratchett

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Terry Pratchett
Age: 66 †
Born: 1948
Born: April 28
Died: 2015
Died: March 12
Author
Journalist
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Writer
Beaconsfield
Buckinghamshire
Terence David John Terry Pratchett
Terence David John Pratchett
Sir Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John Pratchett
Time
Period
Cab
Periods
Shortest
Green
Unit
York
Units
Behinds
Traffic
Behind
Lights
Second
Turning
Light
Defined
Honking

More quotes by Terry Pratchett

Image
His progress through life was hampered by his tremendous sense of his own ignorance, a disability which affects all too few.
Terry Pratchett
Image
Privilege (to the privileged) means having private laws.
Terry Pratchett
Image
There isn't a way things should be. There's just what happens, and what we do.
Terry Pratchett
Image
But I think you have a right to know what it is you’re not being told.
Terry Pratchett
Image
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.
Terry Pratchett
Image
A good banana daiquiri is hard to come by. I've only ever found one place in this country that makes a proper one, and that's in Leeds.
Terry Pratchett
Image
The trouble with life was that you didn’t get a chance to practice before doing it for real.
Terry Pratchett
Image
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
Image
One of the hardest lessons in young Sam's life had been finding out that the people in charge weren't in charge. It had been finding out that governments were not, on the whole, staffed by people who had a grip, and that plans were what people made instead of thinking.
Terry Pratchett
Image
The phrase may you live in interesting times is the lowest in a trilogy of Chinese curses that continue may you come to the attention of those in authority and finish with may the gods give you everything you ask for. I have no idea about its authenticity.
Terry Pratchett
Image
Perhaps it would be simpler if you just did what you're told and didn't try to understand things.
Terry Pratchett
Image
See a pin and pick it up, and, all day long, you'll have a pin.
Terry Pratchett
Image
What can the harvest hope for...
Terry Pratchett
Image
Rincewind gave his fingers a long shocked stare, as one might regard a gun that has been hanging on the wall for decades and has suddenly gone off and perforated the cat.
Terry Pratchett
Image
A lot hinges on the fact that, in most circumstances, people are not allowed to hit you with a mallet. They put up all kinds of visible and invisible signs that say, 'Do not do this' in the hope that it'll work, but if it doesn't, then they shrug, because there is, really, no real mallet at all.
Terry Pratchett
Image
It's hard to explain, said Brutha. But I think it's got something to do with how people should behave... you should do things because they're right. Not because gods say so. They might say something different another time.
Terry Pratchett
Image
Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it.
Terry Pratchett
Image
First Sight means you can see what really is there, and Second Thoughts mean thinking about what you are thinking. And in Tiffany's case, there were sometimes Third Thoughts and Fourth Thoughts although these...sometimes led her to walk into doors.
Terry Pratchett
Image
The hippo of recollection stirred in the muddy waters of the mind.
Terry Pratchett
Image
Balance. It was all about balance. That had been one of the first things that she had learned: the centre of the seesaw has neither up nor down, but upness and downness flow through it while it remains unmoved. You had to be the centre of the seesaw so the pain flowed through you, not into you. It was very hard. But she could do it!
Terry Pratchett