If you, as a parent, raise your children well, they won't need you anymore. If you did it properly, they go away. Neil Gaiman More Quotes by Neil Gaiman More Quotes From Neil Gaiman I lay on the bed and lost myself in stories. I liked that. Books were safer than other people anyways. Neil Gaiman bedbookpeople You don't pass or fail at being a person, dear. Neil Gaiman dearfailingpersons I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes...you're Doing Something. Neil Gaiman new-yearmistakeyears If you are pointing out one of the things a story is about, then you are very probably right; if you are pointing out the only thing a story is about you are very probably wrong - even if you're the author. Neil Gaiman ifsstorieswriting Rule one of reading other people's stories is that whenever you say 'well that's not convincing' the author tells you that's the bit that wasn't made up. This is because real life is under no obligation to be convincing. Neil Gaiman realreadingwriting Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters. Neil Gaiman matterwritingmay The best advice I can give on this is, once it's done, to put it away until you can read it with new eyes. Finish the short story, print it out, then put it in a drawer and write other things. When you're ready, pick it up and read it, as if you've never read it before. If there are things you aren't satisfied with as a reader, go in and fix them as a writer: that's revision. Neil Gaiman eyewritinggiving And sometimes when you fall... you fly... Neil Gaiman beautifulsometimesfall 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 clotheshalfchildren Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you’ve never been. Once you’ve visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different. Neil Gaiman fruitother-worldspeople Some hats can only be worn if you're willing to be jaunty, to set them at an angle and to walk beneath them with a spring in your stride as if you're only a step away from dancing. They demand a lot of you. Neil Gaiman demanddancingspring His name is Marcus: he is four and a half and possesses that deep gravity and seriousness that only small children and mountain gorillas have ever been able to master. Neil Gaiman mountainnameschildren You're no help," he told the lime. This was unfair. It was only a lime; there was nothing special about it at all. It was doing the best it could. Neil Gaiman unfairspecialhelping While clothes do not, as the saying would sometimes have it, make the man, and fine feathers do not make fine birds, sometimes they can add a certain spice to a recipe. Neil Gaiman clothesbirdmen Anyone who believes what a cat tells him deserves all he gets. Neil Gaiman catdeservebelieve All we have to believe with is our senses, the tools we use to perceive the world: our sight, our touch, our memory. If they lie to us, then nothing can be trusted. And even if we do not believe, then still we cannot travel in any other way than the road our senses show us; and we must walk that road to the end. Neil Gaiman lovephilosophymemories Writing is flying in dreams. When you remember. When you can. When it works. It's that easy. Neil Gaiman flyingdreamwriting But he did not understand the price. Mortals never do. They only see the prize, their heart's desire, their dream... But the price of getting what you want, is getting what you once wanted. Neil Gaiman dreamdesireheart You're alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you can change the world, the world will change. Potential. Once you're dead, it's gone. Over. You've made what you've made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished. Neil Gaiman namesdreammean You are obvious, boy. You are difficult to miss. If you came to me in company with a purple lion, a green elephant, and a scarlet unicorn astride which was the King of England in his Royal Robes, I do believe that it is you and you alone that people would stare at, dismissing the others as minor irrelevancies. Neil Gaiman kingsboysbelieve
