quote · Legacy record
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.
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.
Approximate author period: c. 1946 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Philip Pullman
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1946 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from documented birth year 1946; activity date not established; Wikidata Q190220, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q190220 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 55334; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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