I am amiable. Vague. Puzzled. Messy-haired. Neil Gaiman More Quotes by Neil Gaiman More Quotes From Neil Gaiman Librarians are the coolest people out there doing the hardest job out there on the frontlines. And every time I get to encounter or work with librarians, I'm always impressed by their sheer awesomeness. Neil Gaiman hardest-job jobs people To be honest, I think love is complete bullshit. I don't think anyone ever loves anyone. I think the best people ever get is horny; horny and scared, so when they find someone who makes them horny, and they get too scared of the world outside, they stay together and they call it love. Neil Gaiman love-is people thinking There are stories within stories, whispered in the quiet of the night, shouted above the roar of the day, and played out between lovers and enemies, strangers and friends. But all are fragile things made of just twenty-six letters arranged and re-arranged to form tales and imaginings which will dazzle your senses, haunt your imagination and move you to the very depths of your soul. Neil Gaiman strangers-and-friends night moving When I was a kid and a young man I read everything. When I was about 23, I was incredibly lucky in that I wound up with several book review columns, which meant that I had to read huge amounts of stuff that was outside my experience and outside my comfort zone. I think every young writer should be forced to read the kind of stuff they would not normally read for pleasure. Neil Gaiman men kids book 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 book people ideas It's not the fish you catch, it's the peace of mind you take home at the end of the day. Neil Gaiman fishing mind home Sometimes I suspect that we build our traps ourselves, then we back into them, pretending amazement the while. Neil Gaiman cages sometimes way I finally made friends with my father when I entered my twenties. We had so little in common when I was a boy, and I am certain I had been a disappointment to him. He did not ask for a child with a book, off in its own world. He wanted a son who did what he had done; swam and boxed and played rugby, and drove cars at speed with abandon and joy, but that was not what he wound up with. Neil Gaiman disappointment father children 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 creativity writing inspiring 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. Neil Gaiman new-year mistake art If it's true that every seven years each cell in your body dies and is replaced, then I have truly inherited my life from a dead man; and the misdeeds of those times have been forgiven, and are buried with his bones. Neil Gaiman cells men years 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 good-day cat writing She was the storm, she was the lightning, she was the adult world with all its power and all its secrets and all its foolish casual cruelty. Neil Gaiman lightning storm secret I believe we have an obligation to read for pleasure, in private and in public places. If we read for pleasure, if others see us reading, then we learn, we exercise our imaginations. We show others that reading is a good thing. Neil Gaiman reading exercise believe Let her tell stories and dance in the rain, somersault, tumble and run, her joys must be high as her sorrows are deep, let her grow like a weed in the sun. Neil Gaiman weed rain running 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 owning-a-pet cat kings 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 soul may book A book is a dream that you hold in your hands. Neil Gaiman dream inspirational book But libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university), about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information. Neil Gaiman communication ideas school Parameters are the things you bounce off to create art. Neil Gaiman bounce parameters art
