Good Omens

by

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Good Omens makes teaching easy.
Death is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. He’s the tallest of the Four and is never seen without his biker’s helmet, which entirely obscures his face. In the novel, Death speaks in all capital letters with no quotation marks, intended to convey that he’s communicating telepathically with other characters. The most mysterious of the Horsemen, Death is, according to War, “not exactly one of the lads.” While the other Horsemen delight in being evil and destroying the world, Death acts as though he’s simply doing his job—one that will always be necessary. Indeed, the novel insists that even if the mortal world eventually rids itself of war, pollution, and famine, death will always remain. Death is the only Horseman who isn’t destroyed when faced with Adam and the Them. Instead, he transforms into Azrael, the Angel of Death, salutes Adam, and resumes his work.

Death Quotes in Good Omens

The Good Omens quotes below are all either spoken by Death or refer to Death. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Good and Evil Theme Icon
).
Saturday Quotes

And then it was Pigbog’s turn.

“I, uh...I think I’ll be them answer phones. They’re pretty bad,” he said.

“You can’t be ansaphones. What kind of a Biker of the Repocalypse is ansaphones? That’s stupid, that is.”

“S’not!” said Pigbog, nettled. “It’s like War, and Famine, and that. It’s a problem of life, isn’t it? Answer phones. I hate bloody answer phones.”

“I hate ansaphones, too,” said Cruelty to Animals.

Related Characters: Pigbog (speaker), Death, War/Red/Scarlett, Famine/Black/Sable, Pollution/White , Greaser, Big Ted, Skuzz
Page Number: 261
Explanation and Analysis:

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND, he said. SURELY YOUR VERY EXISTENCE REQUIRES THE ENDING OF THE WORLD. IT IS WRITTEN.

“I dunt see why anyone has to go an’ write things like that,” said Adam calmly. “The world is full of all sorts of brilliant stuff and I haven’t found out all about it yet, so I don’t want anyone messing it about or endin’ it before I’ve had a chance to find out about it. So you can all just go away.”

Related Characters: Adam Young/The Antichrist (speaker), Death (speaker), War/Red/Scarlett, Famine/Black/Sable, Pollution/White
Related Symbols: Dog (The Hell-Hound)
Page Number: 326
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Good Omens LitChart as a printable PDF.
Good Omens PDF

Death Quotes in Good Omens

The Good Omens quotes below are all either spoken by Death or refer to Death. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Good and Evil Theme Icon
).
Saturday Quotes

And then it was Pigbog’s turn.

“I, uh...I think I’ll be them answer phones. They’re pretty bad,” he said.

“You can’t be ansaphones. What kind of a Biker of the Repocalypse is ansaphones? That’s stupid, that is.”

“S’not!” said Pigbog, nettled. “It’s like War, and Famine, and that. It’s a problem of life, isn’t it? Answer phones. I hate bloody answer phones.”

“I hate ansaphones, too,” said Cruelty to Animals.

Related Characters: Pigbog (speaker), Death, War/Red/Scarlett, Famine/Black/Sable, Pollution/White , Greaser, Big Ted, Skuzz
Page Number: 261
Explanation and Analysis:

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND, he said. SURELY YOUR VERY EXISTENCE REQUIRES THE ENDING OF THE WORLD. IT IS WRITTEN.

“I dunt see why anyone has to go an’ write things like that,” said Adam calmly. “The world is full of all sorts of brilliant stuff and I haven’t found out all about it yet, so I don’t want anyone messing it about or endin’ it before I’ve had a chance to find out about it. So you can all just go away.”

Related Characters: Adam Young/The Antichrist (speaker), Death (speaker), War/Red/Scarlett, Famine/Black/Sable, Pollution/White
Related Symbols: Dog (The Hell-Hound)
Page Number: 326
Explanation and Analysis: