Sometimes the best way to learn something is by doing it wrong and looking at what you did. Neil Gaiman More Quotes by Neil Gaiman More Quotes From Neil Gaiman The Marquis sighed. "I thought it was just a legend," he said. "Like the alligators in the sewers of New York City." Old Bailey nodded, sagely: "What, the big white buggers? They're down there. I had a friend lost a head to one of them." A moment of silence. Old Naeiley handed the statue back to the Marquis. Then he raised his hand, and snapped it, like a crocodile hand, at the Carabas. "It was OK," gurned Old Bailey with a grin that was most terrible to behold. "He had another. Neil Gaiman citiesnew-yorkhands Not knowing everything is all that makes it OK, sometimes. Neil Gaiman knowing-everythingnot-knowingsometimes There was something about being in the vicinity of Grahame Coats that always made Fat Charlie (a) speak in cliches and (b) begin to daydream about huge black helicopters first opening fire upon, then dropping buckets of flaming napalm onto the offices of the Grahame Coats agency. Fat Charlie would not be in the office in those daydreams. He would be sitting in a chair outside a little cafe on the other side of Aldwych, sipping a frothy coffee and occasionally cheering at an exceptionally well-flung bucket of napalm. Neil Gaiman coffeecheerfire Stories are made up by people who make them up. If they work, they get retold. There's the magic of it. Neil Gaiman magicstoriespeople October knew, of course, that the action of turning a page, of ending a chapter or of shutting a book, did not end a tale. Having admitted that, he would also avow that happy endings were never difficult to find: "It is simply a matter," he explained to April, "of finding a sunny place in a garden, where the light is golden and the grass is soft; somewhere to rest, to stop reading, and to be content. Neil Gaiman gardenreadingbook I mean, maybe I am crazy. I mean, maybe. But if this is all there is, then I don't want to be sane. Neil Gaiman crazywantmean I'm not blessed, or merciful. I'm just me. I've got a job to do, and I do it. Listen: even as we're talking, I'm there for old and young, innocent and guilty, those who die together and those who die alone. I'm in cars and boats and planes; in hospitals and forests and abbatoirs. For some folks death is a release, and for others death is an abomination, a terrible thing. But in the end, I'm there for all of them. Neil Gaiman blessedtalkingjobs There is a proverbial saying chiefly concerned with warning against too closely calculating the numerical value of un-hatched chicks. Neil Gaiman proverbialchickswarning Rules and responsibilities: these are the ties that bind us. We do what we do, because of who we are. If we did otherwise, we would not be ourselves. I will do what I have to do. And I will do what I must. Neil Gaiman who-we-aretiesresponsibility My very small part in WATCHMEN is that, every now and then, Alan would phone me: ''Neil, you're an educated man. Where does it say...'' He would need a quote from the Bible, or an essay about owls. I was his occasional research assistant. Neil Gaiman phonesowlmen The right song can turn an emperor into a laughingstock, can bring down dynasties. Neil Gaiman emperordynastysong Everybody going to be dead one day, just give them time. Neil Gaiman patiencegivingdeath That's the trouble with you young people. You think because you ain't been here long, you know everything. In my life I already forgot more than you ever know. Neil Gaiman longpeoplethinking Remember: that giants sleep too soundly; that witches are often betrayed by their appetites; dragons have one soft spot, somewhere, always; hearts can be well-hidden, and you can betray them with your tongue. (from "Instructions") Neil Gaiman dragonssleepheart For tea she went down to see Misses Spink and Forcible. She had three digestive biscuits, a glass of limeade, and a cup of weak tea. The limeade was very interesting. It didn't taste anything like limes. It tasted bright green and vaguely chemical. Coraline liked it enormously. She wished they had it at home. "How are your dear mother and father?" asked Miss Spink. "Missing," said Coraline. "I haven't seen either of them since yesterday. I'm on my own. I think I've probably become a single child family. Neil Gaiman motherfatherchildren A novel seemed the easiest way to get what I had had in my head into the inside of other people's heads. Books are good that way. Neil Gaiman bookpeopleway Human beings do not like being pushed about by gods. They may seem to, on the surface, but somewhere on the inside, underneath it all, they sense it, and they resent it. Neil Gaiman surfaceresentmay You'll think this is a bit silly, but I'm a bit--well, I have a thing about birds." "What, a phobia?" "Sort of." "Well, that's the common term for an irrational fear of birds." "What do they call a rational fear of birds, then? Neil Gaiman sillybirdthinking Belinda stared into the fire for some time, thinking about what she had in her life, and what she had given up; and whether it would be worse to love someone who was no longer there, or not to love someone who was. Neil Gaiman firewould-bethinking Adventures are all very well in their place, but there's a lot to be said for regular meals and freedom from pain. Neil Gaiman painmealsadventure
