neil-gaiman

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so
vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it
means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
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Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons
exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.
Neil Gaiman, Coraline
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I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at
school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach
you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be
poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't
love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in
someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's
dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
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May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good
madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks
you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw
or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the
next year, you surprise yourself.
Neil Gaiman
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I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I
can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not.

I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and
Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people
are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by
secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis,
nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate
cattle and want our water and our women.

I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks
and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back
and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown
boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex
in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters
from state to state.

I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still
believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that
California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while
Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic
waste.

I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt
and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold
like martians in War of the Worlds.

I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith
Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that
thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian
shaman.

I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that
candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's
aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a
wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive
and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to
feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and
that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the
universe itself.

I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and
oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the
universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and
doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless
universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.

I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it
properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on
will lie about the little things too.

I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a
woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human
life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can
trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would
ever trust the legal system.

I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that
life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie
back and enjoy it.
Neil Gaiman, American Gods
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I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you
are making mistakes...you're Doing Something.
Neil Gaiman
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Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes,
when you fall, you fly.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections
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Life is a disease: sexually transmitted, and invariably fatal.
Neil Gaiman
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Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so
vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it
means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up
all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that
nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any
other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a
piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day,
like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own
anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and
leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we
should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way
into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in
the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart
pain. I hate love.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
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Everybody has a secret world inside of them. I mean everybody. All of
the people in the whole world, I mean everybody no matter how dull and
boring they are on the outside. Inside them they've all got
unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds... Not
just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 5: A Game of You
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People think dreams aren't real just because they aren't made of
matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of
viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes.
Neil Gaiman
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What I say is, a town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call
itself a town, but unless it's got a bookstore it knows it's not
fooling a soul.
Neil Gaiman, American Gods
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When I was a child, adults would tell me not to make things up,
warning me of what would happen if I did. As far as I can tell so far,
it seems to involve lots of foreign travel and not having to get up
too early in the morning.
Neil Gaiman, Smoke and Mirrors
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There are so many fragile things, after all.  People break so easily,
and so do dreams and hearts.
Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders
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Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the
shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and
forgot.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country
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Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the
good writing days nothing else matters.
Neil Gaiman
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Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked.  This
is because most books on witchcraft were written by men.
Neil Gaiman
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She says nothing at all, but simply stares upward into the dark sky
and watches, with sad eyes, the slow dance of the infinite stars.
Neil Gaiman, Stardust
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Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of a job: it's always you
versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the
blank piece of paper wins.
Neil Gaiman
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I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously
and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before
you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and
that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most
importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more
wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be
wise, and that you will always be kind.
Neil Gaiman
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[D]on't ever apologize to an author for buying something in paperback,
or taking it out from a library (that's what they're there for. Use
your library). Don't apologize to this author for buying books second
hand, or getting them from bookcrossing or borrowing a friend's
copy. What's important to me is that people read the books and enjoy
them, and that, at some point in there, the book was bought by
someone. And that people who like things, tell other people. The most
important thing is that people read...
Neil Gaiman
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This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one
word after another until its done. It's that easy, and that hard.
Neil Gaiman
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She seems so cool, so focused, so quiet, yet her eyes remain fixed
upon the horizon. You think you know all there is to know about her
immediately upon meeting her, but everything you think you know is
wrong. Passion flows through her like a river of blood.

She only looked away for a moment, and the mask slipped, and you
fell. All your tomorrows start here.
Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders
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When we hold each other, in the darkness, it doesn't make the darkness
go away. The bad things are still out there. The nightmares still
walking. When we hold each other we feel not safe, but better. "It's
all right" we whisper, "I'm here, I love you." and we lie: "I'll never
leave you." For just a moment or two the darkness doesn't seem so bad.
Neil Gaiman, Neil Gaiman's Midnight Days
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You get what anybody gets - you get a lifetime.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
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In a perfect world, you could fuck people without giving them a piece
of your heart. And every glittering kiss and every touch of flesh is
another shard of heart youll never see again.
Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders
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Stories you read when you're the right age never quite leave you. You
may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes
you'll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it
will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely
ever visit.
Neil Gaiman, M is for Magic
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I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of
fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted just like that,
and it didn't mean anything? What then?
Neil Gaiman, Coraline
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I think I fell in love with her, a little bit. Isn't that dumb? But it
was like I knew her. Like she was my oldest, dearest friend. The kind
of person you can tell anything to, no matter how bad, and they'll
still love you, because they know you. I wanted to go with her. I
wanted her to notice me. And then she stopped walking. Under the moon,
she stopped. And looked at us. She looked at me. Maybe she was trying
to tell me something; I don't know. She probably didn't even know I
was there. But I'll always love her. All my life.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 8: Worlds' End
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There are a hundred things she has tried to chase away the things she
won't remember and that she can't even let herself think about because
that's when the birds scream and the worms crawl and somewhere in her
mind it's always raining a slow and endless drizzle.

You will hear that she has left the country, that there was a gift she
wanted you to have, but it is lost before it reaches you. Late one
night the telephone will sign, and a voice that might be hers will say
something that you cannot interpret before the connection crackles and
is broken.

Several years later, from a taxi, you will see someone in a doorway
who looks like her, but she will be gone by the time you persuade the
driver to stop. You will never see her again.

Whenever it rains you will think of her.  
Neil Gaiman
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I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things,
trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing
yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done
before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make
New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's
ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't
good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or
work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.
Neil Gaiman
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You're always you, and that don't change, and you're always changing,
and there's nothing you can do about it.
Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
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Let us begin this letter, this prelude to an encounter, formally, as a
declaration, in the old-fashioned way: I love you. You do not know me
(although you have seen me, smiled at me). I know you (although not so
well as I would like. I want to be there when your eyes flutter open
in the morning, and you see me, and you smile. Surely this would be
paradise enough?). So I do declare myself to you now, with pen set to
paper. I declare it again: I love you.
Neil Gaiman
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What's your name,' Coraline asked the cat. 'Look, I'm Coraline. Okay?'
'Cats don't have names,' it said.
'No?' said Coraline.
'No,' said the cat. 'Now you people have names. That's because you
don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.'
Neil Gaiman, Coraline
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Each person who ever was or is or will be has a song. It isn't a song
that anybody else wrote. It has its own melody, it has its own
words. Very few people get to sing their song. Most of us fear that we
cannot do it justice with our voices, or that our words are too
foolish or too honest, or too odd. So people live their song instead.
Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys
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'Because,' she said, 'when you're scared but you still do it anyway,
that's brave.'
Neil Gaiman, Coraline
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Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things,
and which can sometimes pay the rent.
Neil Gaiman
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Books make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside of
them. And it's much cheaper to buy somebody a book than it is to buy
them the whole world!
Neil Gaiman
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It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the
great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people
being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being
fundamentally people.
Neil Gaiman, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
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I am selfish, private and easily bored.  Will this be a problem?
Neil Gaiman, A Study in Emerald
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Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you'd
most like not to lose.
Neil Gaiman
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Sometimes we can choose the paths we follow. Sometimes our choices are
made for us. And sometimes we have no choice at all.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 4: Season of Mists
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I would like to see anyone, prophet, king or God, convince a thousand
cats to do the same thing at the same time.
Neil Gaiman
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That which is dreamed can never be lost, can never be undreamed.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 10: The Wake
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Face your life, its pain, its pleasure, leave no path untaken.
Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
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It's like the people who believe they'll be happy if they go and live
somewhere else, but who learn it doesn't work that way. Wherever you
go, you take yourself with you. If you see what I mean.
Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
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Then, one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person,
wanders into your stupid life...you give them a piece of you. They
don't ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you or
smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
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He had noticed that events were cowards: they didn't occur singly, but
instead they would run in packs and leap out at him all at once.
Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
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Hey," said Shadow. "Huginn or Muninn, or whoever you are."
The bird turned, head tipped, suspiciously, on one side, and it stared
at him with bright eyes.
"Say 'Nevermore,'" said Shadow.
"Fuck you," said the raven.
Neil Gaiman, American Gods
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We...we could be friends.'

We COULD be rare specimens of an exotic breed of dancing African
elephants, but we're not. At least, I'M not.
Neil Gaiman, Coraline
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Most people don't realize how important librarians are. I ran across a
book recently which suggested that the peace and prosperity of a
culture was solely related to how many librarians it
contained. Possibly a slight overstatement. But a culture that doesn't
value its librarians doesn't value ideas and without ideas, well,
where are we?
Neil Gaiman
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Remember: that giants sleep too soundly; that witches are often
betrayed by their appetites; dragons have one soft spot, somewhere,
always; hearts can be well-hidden, and you can betray them with your
tongue. (from "Instructions")
Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders
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An Angel who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards.
Neil Gaiman, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
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You've a good heart.  Sometimes that's enough to see you safe wherever you go.  But mostly, it's not.
Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
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Only the phoenix rises and does not descend. And everything changes. And nothing is truly lost.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 10: The Wake
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You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it.
Neil Gaiman
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Have been unavoidably detained by the world.  Expect us when you see
us.
Neil Gaiman, Stardust
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When writing a novel, that's pretty much entirely what life turns
into: 'House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1500 easy
words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.'
Neil Gaiman
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All your questions can be answered, if that is what you want.  But
once you learn your answers, you can never unlearn them.
Neil Gaiman, American Gods
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I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean,
they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here,
I can pretend...I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that
lives last longer than moments. Gods come, and gods go. Mortals
flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies
are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish
into cold and dust. But I can pretend...
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 7: Brief Lives
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