People are often so busy living that they never stopped to wonder why. (ISWM)
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‘“Pretty please with sprinkles on top” is not a recognised method of interrogation!’ (MR)
The trouble with Polly was that she had a mind that asked questions even when she really, really didn’t want to know the answers. (MR)
... Rust was always a man to interrupt an answer with a demand for the answer he was in fact interrupting. (NW)
She looked like the kind of person who asked questions. And her hair was too red and her nose was too long. And she wore a long black dress with black lace fringing. No good comes of that sort of thing. (AM)
'I want to know why. Why everything. I don't know the answers, but a few days ago I didn't know there were questions.' (N)
If you didn't find some way of stopping it, people would go on asking questions. (WFM)
‘Not all questions are answered, commander, but fortunately some answers are questioned.’ (Sn)
'Coppers are never nosy, Mister Likely. However, sometimes we ask tangential questions'. (UA)
'Why do you ask so many questions, Mau?'
'Because I want so many answers!' (N) 'I would like a question answered today', said Tiffany.
‘Provided it’s not the one about how you get baby hedgehogs,’ said the man. ‘No,’ said Tiffany patiently. ‘It’s about zoology.’ ‘Zoology, eh? That’s a big word, isn’t it.’ ‘No, actually it isn’t,’ said Tiffany. ‘Patronizing is a big word. Zoology is really quite short.' (WFM) The lady in the boardroom was certainly an attractive woman, but since she worked for the Times Moist felt unable to award her total ladylike status. Ladies didn’t fiendishly quote exactly what you said but didn’t exactly mean, or hit you around the ears with unexpectedly difficult questions. Well, come to think of it, they did, quite often, but she got paid for it. (MM)
'But they’re witches. I don’t like to ask them questions.’
‘Why not?’ ‘They might give me answers. And then what would I do?' (LL) 'I have heard the heartbeat of the universe. I know the answers to many questions. Ask me.’
The apprentice gave him a bleary look. It was too early in the morning for it to be early in the morning. That was the only thing he currently knew for sure. ‘Er…what does master want for breakfast?’ he said. Wen looked down on their camp and across the snowfields and purple mountains to the golden daylight creating the world, and mused upon certain aspects of humanity. ‘Ah,’ he said. ‘One of the difficult ones.' (TOT) Like his wizardly brother, Archchancellor Mustrum, he didn’t like to bother himself with patently silly questions. Both gods and magic required solid, sensible men, and the brothers Ridcully were solid as rocks. And, in some respects, as sensible. (TT)
'What would you do if I asked you an outright question, Vimes?’
‘I’d tell you an outright lie, sir.' (Th) 'In an unknown situation always hope for savages. They tend to be quite polite and hospitable provided you don’t make any sudden moves or eat the wrong sort of animals.’
‘What sort of animals?’ said Ridcully. ‘Taboo, sir. They tend to be related. Or something.’ ‘That sounds rather…sophisticated,’said Ponder suspiciously. Savages often are,’ said Rincewind. ‘It’s the civilised people that give you trouble. They always want to drag you off somewhere and ask you unsophisticated questions.' (TG) 'I bin askin’ questions.’
‘So are we.’ ‘I bin askin’ questions more louder,’ said the troll. ‘I get lotsa answers. Sometimes I am getting’ answers to questions I ain’t even asked yet.' (Th) 'What causes that, do you think?’
‘Science, probably,’ said Hughnon vaguely. Like his wizardly brother, Archchancellor Mustrum, he didn’t like to bother himself with patently silly questions. (TT) Detritus was particularly good when it came to asking questions. He had three basic ones. They were the direct (‘Did you do it?’), the persistent (‘Are you sure it wasn’t you what done it?’) and the subtle (‘It was you what done it, wasn’t it?’). Although they were not the most cunning questions ever devised, Detritus’ talent was to go on patiently asking them for hours on end, until he got the right answer, which was generally something like: ‘Yes! Yes! I did it! I did it! Now please tell me what it was I did!' (FC)
‘…as you accumulate years, you will learn that most answers boil down, eventually, to “Because”.' (TOT)
'Questions don’t have to make sense, Vincent,’ said Miss Susan. ‘But answers do.' (TOT)
People flock in, nevertheless, in search of answers to those questions only librarians are considered able to answer, such as ‘Is this the laundry?’ ‘How do you spell surreptitious?’ and, on a regular basis: ‘Do you have a book I remember reading once? It had a red cover and it turned out they were twins.' (GP)
'I'm an Igor, thur. We don’t athk quethtionths.’
‘Really? Why not?’ ‘I don’t know, thur. I didn’t athk.' (MM) If you didn’t find some way of stopping it, people would go on asking questions. (WFM)
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The world has lost Sir Terry, and it's so much the poorer for that. Vale Sir Terry. Categories
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