The Kappamaki, a whaling research ship, was currently researching the question: How many whales can you catch in one week?

So, mistletoe, in fact, symbolizes mistletoe.

When she spoke again it was in the thin, careful and above all brave voice of someone who has pulled themselves together despite overwhelming odds but might let go again at any moment.

She was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don't apply to you.

I'm interested in mythology generally, but India has no special place in my heart -- although Hindu gods seem a lot more fun.

I mistrust the term graphic novel because it sounds like a good thing to put on a tee-shirt. That's why the French like them.

People are bound to get excited when they see a ten-million-ton starship trying to fly down the street.

The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a Black Hole that knows how to read.

He was certain he was anorectic, because every time he looked in a mirror he saw a fat man. It was the Archchancellor, standing behind him and shouting at him.

Dark Fantasy is just another way of saying Horror.

And what are you doing on it, I would like to know? Running away from home, yesno? If you were a boy I'd say are you going to seek your fortune? Can't girls seek their fortune? I think they're supposed to seek a boy with a fortune.

In defiance of Miss Maccalariat I'd like to commit hanky-panky with you, Miss Adora Belle Dearheart... well, certainly hanky, and possibly panky when we get to know one another better.

I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are good people and bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.

I must confess the activities of the UK governments for the past couple of years have been watched with frank admiration and amazement by Lord Vetinari. Outright theft as a policy had never occurred to him.

You'll see! We're going to the palace. Fetch Angua. We might need her. And bring the search warrant. You mean the sledgehammer, sir? Yes.

Things like crowns had a troublesome effect on clever folk; it was best to leave all the reigning to the kind of people whose eyebrows met in the middle when they tried to think. In a funny sort of way, they were much better at it.

You don't have to chase around after creatures, Pismire had said.

I do note with interest that old women in my books become young women on the covers... this is discrimination against the chronologically gifted.

Making money isn't something to be ashamed of. There's a feeling now that if you have money you must have got it by some kind of shady dealing or being an MP.

She knew a cutting, incisive, withering and above all a self-evident answer existed. It was just that, to her extreme annoyance, she couldn't quite bring it to mind.