Q & A's

Latest Q & A's

I am privileged to have so many of you send through your questions about my work – thank you. I am afraid that I will not be able to answer all of them, but please still send your questions and I will do my very best to answer as many as I can.

Question:

dear mr pullman, I admire your work very much and I am just wondering do you make up your characters in his dark materials or did they remind you of people? and I would also like to know do you beleive in what you write about dark matter in your books? I have done a lot of research about it but I am srill a little bit confused thank you for your time Mikayla (13)

Asked on 09/06/2012 00:24:34

Answer:

The characters I write about aren’t based on anyone in particular. They just come to me. As for dark matter, I tried to make everything I say about it as true as I could. It’s a fascinating and mysterious subject – so is dark energy, which had hardly been discovered when I began to write His Dark Materials. I hope to be dealing with it – a little bit, anyway – in The Book of Dust.

Question:

Dear Mr. Pullman, I am a 7th grade teacher in Wisconsin. I just finished reading the His Dark Materials trilogy. I have NEVER been so deeply affected by a book, specifically the ending. I have been crying about it for 3 days! Will and Lyra's decision and the bittersweet moments between them truly speak to the power humanity. What is more important to you: Having a reader experience something so emotional or making them question their beliefs or world view. Thank you for this book. Ross, Madison, WI USA

Asked on 01/06/2012 01:03:17

Answer:

Thank you, Ross. What pleases me most is when both things happen – when people are moved both emotionally and intellectually. It’s like making an audience laugh and cry at the same time – nothing is more satisfying, and nothing is harder to do.

Question:

Dear Phillip I am doing a comparison of the books Northern Lights and The Good Man Jesus And The Scoundrel Christ. What inspiration did you have for both books and what kind of styles did you use for the two of them. Yours Sincerly Lawrence

Asked on 16/04/2012 11:01:53

Answer:

For Northern Lights, I told the story to find out whay happened after Lyra got trapped in the Retiring Room and overheard things she wasn’t supposed to. For The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, I already knew the story, of course, so I wanted to tell it from a different angle.

Question:

What is truth?

Asked on 09/04/2012 18:04:19

Answer:

If you’re asking a novelist to provide an answer for such a profound philosophical problem, you’re asking the wrong person.

Question:

Dear Mr Pullman, Please can you push for a remake of the Northern Lights film. I personally feel that the HDM trilogy could become the greatest film trilogy ever made if it was put in the right hands. The current writers and producers of the Doctor Who series (Stephen Moffat et. al.) would be fantastic at envisioning your work. What is your opinion on this? Thanks, Matt

Asked on 09/04/2012 00:38:26

Answer:

I agree with your opinion about Stephen Moffat and co, but they are fundamentally TV people rather than cinema people. But that raises the interesting question: would HDM< be better as a long TV series? Maybe it would.