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Neil Gaiman Quotes - Page 22

All Quotes Adventure Age Aliens Art Boundaries Cancer Challenges Change Character Childhood Children Chocolate Choices Comedy Country Culture Dancing Darkness Design Desire Destiny Devil Earth Empathy Evil Failing Falling In Love Fear Feelings Fighting Finding Yourself Football Freedom Of Speech Fun Funeral Future Giving Graduation Growing Up Hate Heart Hell Home House Hurt Identity Imagination Inspirational Inspiring Jesus Journey Joy Killing Kindness Kissing Liars Life Lifetime Literature Losing Loss Love Lucifer Luck Lying Madness Magic Meetings Memories Metaphor Moon Morning Mountain New Year Pain Parting Past Rain Reading Reality Regret Running School Science Fiction Silence Sin Sleep Son Sorrow Soul Storytelling Style Summer Tea Terror Today Tragedy Waiting Wall War Water Wednesday Wine Winning Worry Writing

Something feels weird, he told Laura. That wasn't the first thing he said to her. The first thing was I love you, because it's a good thing to say if you can mean it, and Shadow did.

Something feels weird," he told Laura. That wasn't the first thing he said to her. The first thing was "I love you," because it's a good thing to say if you can mean it, and Shadow did.

Love You, Mean, Shadow

Neil Gaiman (2011). “American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition: A Novel”, p.22, Harper Collins

Writing fiction is not a profession that leaves one well-disposed toward reading fiction. One starts out loving books and stories, and then one becomes jaded and increasingly hard to please. I read less and less fiction these days, finding the buzz and the joy I used to get from fiction in ever stranger works of non-fiction, or poetry.

Book, Reading, Writing

Neil Gaiman (2002). “Adventures in the Dream Trade”, N E S F A Press

It's not what I'd want for at my funeral. When I die, I just want them to plant me somewhere warm. And then when the pretty women walk over my grave I would grab their ankles, like in that movie.

Funeral, Pretty Woman, Ankles

If I come back, it will be a place, but it won't be a home any longer.

Home, Ifs

Neil Gaiman (2009). “The Graveyard Book”, p.187, A&C Black

He had had a severe shock some weeks earlier, when, having narrowly failed to capture a large grey-brown hare for his dinner, it had stopped at the edge of the forest, looked at him with disdain, and said, 'Well, I hope you're proud of yourself, that's all,' and had scampered off into the long grass

Long Grass, Forests, Proud

Neil Gaiman (2007). “Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess's Stardust: Being a Romance Within the Realms of Faerie”, Vertigo

People talk about books that write themselves, and it's a lie. Books don't write themselves. It takes thought and research and backache and notes and more time and more work than you'd believe.

Lying, Believe, Book

The young woman was crying, in the way that grownups cry, keeping it inside as much as they can, and hating it when it still pushes out at the edges, making them ugly and funny-looking on the way.

Hate, Ugly, Way

It was a dream, and in dreams you have no choices: either there are no decisions to be made, or they were made for you long before ever the dream began.

Dream, Long, Choices

Neil Gaiman (2011). “American Gods”, p.199, Hachette UK

Science is a way of talking about the universe in words that bind it to a common reality. Magic is a method of talking to the universe in words that it cannot ignore. The two are rarely compatible.

Reality, Two, Talking

"The Books of Magic. Book I: The Invisible Labyrinth". Book by Neil Gaiman, 1990 - 1991.

Why do I have this imagination? It's the only one I've got!

Imagination

San Diego Comicon, 2007.

I love religion. I could make up religions all day. I sort of think that in an ideal world I'd like to be a religion designer. I'd like people come up to me and say, I need a religion. I'd go talk to them for a while, and I'd design a religion for them. That would be a great job. There's a need for people like that. Fortunately, seeing that one can't actually do it, I get paid for sort of making them up anyway.

Jobs, Thinking, People

When you start out on a career in the arts you have no idea what you are doing. This is great. People who know what they are doing know the rules, and know what is possible and impossible. You do not. And you should not. The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can. If you don't know it's impossible it's easier to do. And because nobody's done it before, they haven't made up rules to stop anyone doing that again, yet.

Art, Book, Possible And Impossible

Neil Gaiman's Commencement Address at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, www.uarts.edu. May 17, 2012.

When you dream, sometimes you remember. When you wake, you always forget.

Dream, Wakes You, Remember

"Brief Lives (The Sandman, Book 7)". Book sub-series by Neil Gaiman, September 1992 – May 1993.

Identity can be so gelatinous sometimes.

Identity, Sometimes

But surely "Argh" is the sound of a sort of strangulated scream. "Aargh" is the sound of a stabbing, or a falling off a cliff. "Arr" is, I think, the noise you're looking for. It's the noise pirates make when they don't have anything better to do. "Arr, Jim Lad" = Pirate noise. "Aargh, Jim Lad" = sound of pirate falling off a cliff.

Fall, Thinking, Pirate

Suggestions? Put it aside for a few days, or longer, do other things, try not to think about it. Then sit down and read it (printouts are best I find, but that's just me) as if you've never seen it before. Start at the beginning. Scribble on the manuscript as you go if you see anything you want to change. And often, when you get to the end you'll be both enthusiastic about it and know what the next few words are. And you do it all one word at a time.

Writing, Thinking, Trying

Start telling the stories that only you can tell.

Stories, Writing Advice

Neil Gaiman (1999). “Gods & Tulips”

All your tomorrows start here.

Tomorrow

Neil Gaiman (2010). “Fragile Things”, p.105, Hachette UK

Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all.

Lying, Fiction, Telling The Truth

Neil Gaiman (2016). “The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction”, p.15, HarperCollins

Kim Newman's Anno Dracula is back in print, and we must celebrate. It was the first mash-up of literature, history and vampires, and now, in a world in which vampires are everywhere, it's still the best, and its bite is just as sharp. Compulsory reading, commentary, and mindgame: glorious.

Reading, Literature History, Mash Up

A disturbing novel about dreams and wishes, a nightmarish distaff monkey's paw of a book that it's impossible to forget. Lisa Tuttle remains our preeminent chronicler of family madness and desire.

Dream, Book, Wish

Tools, of course, can be the subtlest of traps.

Design, Tools, Traps

One thing that I get from a lot of people with American Gods is people saying that they would love some kind of glossary with a list of all the Gods and who they are, so that they can look them up.

People, Looks, Lists

"Neil Gaiman Talks AMERICAN GODS, DOCTOR WHO, Writing a Musical, Ray Bradbury, China and More". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. June 30, 2011.

For me, the glory of my first 25 years as a writer was I could put things off as long as I wanted.

Years, Long, Firsts

The secret to writing is just to write. Write every day. Never stop writing. Write on every surface you see; write on people on the street. When the cops come to arrest you, write on the cops. Write on the police car. Write on the judge. I'm in jail forever now, and the prison cell walls are completely covered with my writing, and I keep writing on the writing I wrote. That's my method.

Wall, Writing, Cells

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