Neil Gaiman: Trending quotes (page 5)

“It is not the end. There is no end. It is simply the end of the old times, Loki, and the beginning of the new times. Rebirth always follows death. You have failed.”

Neil Gaiman

Source: Norse Mythology (2017), Chapter 16, “Ragnarok: The Final Destiny of the Gods” (p. 278)

Death , Time

“People want to forget the impossible. It makes their world safer.”

Neil Gaiman book The Graveyard Book

Source: The Graveyard Book (2008), Ch. 7

People , World , Forgetting

“Some years ago, I was lucky enough invited to a gathering of great and good people: artists and scientists, writers and discoverers of things. And I felt that at any moment they would realise that I didn’t qualify to be there, among these people who had really done things. On my second or third night there, I was standing at the back of the hall, while a musical entertainment happened, and I started talking to a very nice, polite, elderly gentleman about several things, including our shared first name. And then he pointed to the hall of people, and said words to the effect of, "I just look at all these people, and I think, what the heck am I doing here? They’ve made amazing things. I just went where I was sent." And I said, "Yes. But you were the first man on the moon. I think that counts for something."”

Neil Gaiman

And I felt a bit better. Because if Neil Armstrong felt like an imposter, maybe everyone did.
http://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/160603396711/hi-i-read-that-youve-dealt-with-with-impostor (2017)

People , Music , Thinking , Night

“Honestly, if you're given the choice between Armageddon or tea, you don't say "what kind of tea?"”

Neil Gaiman

In a widely reported post https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=%22Honestly,%20if%20you're%20given%20the%20choice%20between%20Armageddon%20or%20tea,%20you%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 from his Twitter account (25 February 2009) https://twitter.com/neilhimself/status/1250594057

Tea

“In every way that counted, I was dead. Inside somewhere maybe I was screaming and weeping and howling like an animal, but that was another person deep inside, another person who had no access to the face and lips and mouth and head, so on the surface I just shrugged and smiled and kept moving.”

Neil Gaiman book Fragile Things

From Bitter Grounds
Fragile Things (2006)

Smile , Way , Animals , Personality

“It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.”

Neil Gaiman The Sandman

The Sandman

Children , Clothes

“It was England in the autumn; the sun was, by definition, something that only happened when it wasn't cloudy or raining.”

Neil Gaiman book Anansi Boys

Source: Anansi Boys (2005), Ch. 9

Autumn , Sun

“And the second thing fiction does is to build empathy. When you watch TV or see a film, you are looking at things happening to other people. Prose fiction is something you build up from 26 letters and a handful of punctuation marks, and you, and you alone, using your imagination, create a world and people it and look out through other eyes. You get to feel things, visit places and worlds you would never otherwise know. You learn that everyone else out there is a me, as well. You're being someone else, and when you return to your own world, you're going to be slightly changed. Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals.”

Neil Gaiman

Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming (2013)

People , World , Feeling , Imagination

“Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.”

Neil Gaiman

"somewhat less sinister ducks" Blog entry (23 April 2004) http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2004/04/somewhat-less-sinister-ducks.asp

Hell

“The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them. I don't think there is such a thing as a bad book for children.Every now and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point at a subset of children's books, a genre, perhaps, or an author, and to declare them bad books, books that children should be stopped from reading…It's tosh. It's snobbery and it's foolishness. There are no bad authors for children, that children like and want to read and seek out, because every child is different. They can find the stories they need to, and they bring themselves to stories. A hackneyed, worn-out idea isn't hackneyed and worn out to them. This is the first time the child has encountered it. Do not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wrong thing. Fiction you do not like is a route to other books you may prefer. And not everyone has the same taste as you.Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child's love of reading: stop them reading what they enjoy, or give them worthy-but-dull books that you like, the 21st-century equivalents of Victorian "improving" literature. You'll wind up with a generation convinced that reading is uncool and worse, unpleasant.”

Neil Gaiman

Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming (2013)

Love , Children , Pleasure , Books

“I don't know what it's like to be God — obviously …until that very first moment when you get to sit down and type the words in your script: INTERIOR. TARDIS. … Suddenly I got a very good idea of what it must feel like. I went: "I'm writing it now this scene in the Tardis. I'm writing it!"”

Neil Gaiman

And that was amazing, it was wonderful.
On writing the script for the episode of Doctor Who, "The Doctor's Wife" (originally titled "House of Nothing"), as quoted in "Neil Gaiman reveals power of writing Doctor Who" by Tim Masters at BBC News (24 May 2010) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10146657

God , Feeling , Idea

“I'm not sure it's entirely a good thing… I've always loved the gutter.”

Neil Gaiman

Response to a question about the increasing critical acceptance of fantasy writing, in a Radio interview, Studio 360 http://www.studio360.org/yore/show100105.html show 640, originally broadcast (1 October 2005)

Love

“He had gone beyond the world of metaphor and simile into the place of things that are, and it was changing him.”

Neil Gaiman book Neverwhere

Source: Neverwhere (1996), Chapter 16

World , Change

“Because," she said, "when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave.”

Neil Gaiman book Coraline

Coraline (2002)