Managed profile Not claimed by Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett has not joined FLAPSS and has not endorsed it. This page is a reference record assembled from published interviews and public remarks. Every answer below is a direct quotation with the source and date shown next to it.

Terry Pratchett

Novelist

United Kingdom · 1948–2015

English novelist, best known for the forty-one Discworld books, whose work has sold more than eighty-five million copies. He announced in December 2007 that he had been diagnosed with posterior cortical atrophy, a rare variant of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, and spent his remaining years writing, funding dementia research and arguing publicly for a legal right to an assisted death. He died of natural causes at home in March 2015.

6 answers 0 followers reference

Question How would you like to die? Death & what remains read 42 other answers →

I remember what George said and vowed that rather than let Alzheimer's take me, I would take it. I would live my life as ever to the full and die, before the disease mounted its last attack, in my own home, in a chair on the lawn, with a brandy in my hand to wash down whatever modern version of the "Brompton cocktail" some helpful medic could supply. And with Thomas Tallis on my iPod, I would shake hands with Death.

Recorded Edited extract from the Richard Dimbleby Lecture, Shaking Hands With Death, Royal College of Physicians, broadcast on BBC1 on 1 February 2010, The Guardian, 2 February 2010 source ↗

Question Has knowing that you will die changed how you live? Death & what remains read 10 other answers →

Let us consider me as a test case. As I have said, I would like to die peacefully with Thomas Tallis on my iPod before the disease takes me over and I hope that will not be for quite some time to come, because if I knew that I could die at any time I wanted, then suddenly every day would be as precious as a million pounds. If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice.

Recorded Edited extract from the Richard Dimbleby Lecture, Shaking Hands With Death, broadcast on BBC1 on 1 February 2010, The Guardian, 2 February 2010 source ↗

Question Are you afraid of death? Death & what remains read 17 other answers →

Did the Victorians fear death? As Death says in one of my own books, most men don't fear death, they fear those things – the knife, the shipwreck, the illness, the bomb – that proceed, by micro seconds if you're lucky and many years if you're not, the moment of death.

Recorded Edited extract from the Richard Dimbleby Lecture, Shaking Hands With Death, broadcast on BBC1 on 1 February 2010, The Guardian, 2 February 2010 source ↗

Question What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? Failure & regret read 30 other answers →

When Milton's Satan stood in the pit of hell and raged at heaven, he was merely a trifle miffed compared to how I felt on that day. I felt totally alone, with the world receding away from me in every direction, and you could have used my anger to weld steel. Only my family and the fact I had fans in the medical profession, who were able to give me useful advice, got me through that moment.

Recorded Written for the Alzheimer's Society in 2008; reprinted by the Observer in the week of his death, The Guardian, 2008 source ↗

Question What scares you about getting older? Time & hindsight read 54 other answers →

When my father was in his terminal year, I discussed death with him. I recall very clearly his relief that the cancer that was taking him was at least allowing him "all his marbles". Dementia in its varied forms is not like cancer. Dad saw the cancer in his pancreas as an invader. But Alzheimer's is me, unwinding, losing trust in myself, a butt of my own jokes and on bad days capable of playing hunt the slipper by myself and losing. You can't battle it, you can't be a plucky "survivor". It steals you from yourself. And I'm 60; that's supposed to be the new 40.

Recorded Written for the Alzheimer's Society in 2008; reprinted by the Observer in the week of his death, The Guardian, 2008 source ↗

Question What is the most important lesson life has taught you? Time & hindsight read 80 other answers →

It occurred to me that at one point it was like I had two diseases – one was Alzheimer's and the other was knowing I had Alzheimer's. There were times when I thought I'd have been much happier not knowing, just accepting that I'd lost brain cells and one day they'd probably grow back or whatever. It is better to know, though, and better for it to be known, because it has got people talking, which I rather think was what I had in mind.

Recorded Written for the Alzheimer's Society in 2008; reprinted by the Observer in the week of his death, The Guardian, 2008 source ↗

Every quotation above is reproduced from the source shown beside it and has not been edited. Terry Pratchett did not write these answers for FLAPSS. Request a correction or removal.