If you were to try and pick him out of a group of boys, you’d be wrong. He’d be the other one. Over at the side. The one your eye slipped over. Neil Gaiman More Quotes by Neil Gaiman More Quotes From Neil Gaiman Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you'd most like not to lose. Neil Gaiman body writing book I was writing the kind of comic that would make me, at age 26 or 27, go down to a comic book store every month and spend my $2. That was my starting point. I wanted to write a comic that I would read. And that's still my agenda. Neil Gaiman age writing book How do I know you'll keep your word?" asked Coraline. "I swear it," said the other mother. "I swear it on my own mother's grave." "Does she have a grave?" asked Coraline. "Oh yes," said the other mother. "I put her in there myself. And when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back. Neil Gaiman mother doe trying Nothing’s changed. You’ll go home. You’ll be bored. You’ll be ignored. No one will listen to you, really listen to you. You’re too clever and too quiet for them to understand. They don’t even get your name right. Neil Gaiman names clever home I like airplanes. I like anywhere that isn't a proper place. I like in betweens. Neil Gaiman airplane There are a number of paths that lead to this place. I have been avoiding them for some small time, now. Neil Gaiman avoiding path numbers The only advice I can give you is what you're telling yourself. Only, maybe you're too scared to listen. Neil Gaiman scared advice giving Never trust a demon. He has a hundred motives for anything he does... ninety-nine of them, at least, are malevolent. Neil Gaiman ninety-nine never-trust doe Loyalty was a great thing, but no lieutenants should be forced to choose between their leader and a circus with elephants. Neil Gaiman elephants loyalty leader Be hole, be dust, be dream, be wind/Be night, be dark, be wish, be mind,/Now slip, now slide, now move unseen,/Above, beneath, betwixt, between. Neil Gaiman dark dream moving Some people have great ideas maybe once or twice in their life, and then they discover electricity or fire or outer space or something. I mean, the kind of brilliant ideas that change the whole world. Some people never have them at all... I get them two or three times a week. Neil Gaiman fire mean ideas My parents would frisk me before family events. Before weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs, and what have you. Because if they didn't, then the book would be hidden inside some pocket or other and as soon as whatever it was got under way I'd be found in a corner. That was who I was...that was what I did. I was the kid with the book. Neil Gaiman funeral kids book I think I would rather be a man than a god. We don’t need anyone to believe in us. We just keep going anyhow. It’s what we do. Neil Gaiman men believe thinking All writers have this vague hope that the elves will come in the night and finish any stories. Neil Gaiman stories writing night You see, the outcome of the battle is unimportant. What matters is the chaos, and the slaughter. Neil Gaiman what-matters outcomes battle There are people who think that things that happen in fiction do not really happen. These people are wrong. Neil Gaiman people fiction thinking I see libraries and librarians as frontline soldiers in the war against illiteracy and the lack of imagination. Neil Gaiman imagination soldier war Books smell and feel better. They have that wonderful thingness of turning the pages. Neil Gaiman smell feel-better book People talk about escapism as if it's a bad thing... Once you've escaped, once you come back, the world is not the same as when you left it. You come back to it with skills, weapons, knowledge you didn't have before. Then you are better equipped to deal with your current reality. Neil Gaiman skills reality people Make your mistakes, next year and forever. Neil Gaiman new-year mistake years