01c. 1960 ADIf you make art, people will talk about it. Some of the things they say will be nice, some won’t. You’ll already have made that art, and when they’re talking about the last thing you did, you should already be making the next thing.If bad reviews (of whatever kind) upset you, just don’t read them. It’s not like you’ve signed an agreement with the person buying the book to exchange your book for their opinion.Do whatever you have to do to keep making art. I know people who love bad reviews, because it means they’ve made something happen and made people talk; I know people who have never read any of their reviews. It’s their call. You get on with making art.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
02c. 1960 ADReligions are, by definition, metaphors, after all: God is a dream, a hope, a woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms, a watchmaker who left his prize chronometer in the desert, someone who loves you—even, perhaps, against all evidence, a celestial being whose only interest is to make sure your football team, army, business, or marriage thrives, prospers, and triumphs over all opposition. Religions are places to stand and look and act, vantage points from which to view the world. So none of this is happening. Such things could not occur. Never a word of it is literally true.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
03c. 1960 ADIt doesn't matter that you didn't believe in us," said Mr. Ibis. "We believed in you.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
04c. 1960 ADReligions are, by definition, metaphors, after all: God is a dream, a hope, a woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms, a watchmaker who left his prize chronometer in the desert, someone who loves you - even, perhaps, against all evidence, a celestial being whose only interest is to make sure your football team, army, business, or marriage thrives, prospers, and triumphs over all opposition.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
05c. 1960 ADHe wondered reflectively what would happen if you asked a nun where the Gents was. Probably the Pope sent you a sharp note or something.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
06c. 1960 ADShe said we all not only could know everything. We do. We just tell ourselves we don't to make it all bearable.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
08c. 1960 ADWhich has left me with a healthy respect and fondness for higher education that those of my friends and family who attended universities were cured of long ago.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
09c. 1960 ADThe future came and went in the mildly discouraging way that futures do.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
10c. 1960 ADThere are little pockets of old time in London, where things and places stay the same, like bubbles in amber,” she explained. “There’s a lot of time in London, and it has to go somewhere—it doesn’t all get used up at once.” “I may still be hung over,” sighed Richard. “That almost made sense.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
11c. 1960 ADAnd why does he talk so funny? Doesn't he mean squashed tomatoes?I don't think that they had tomatoes when he comes from, said Bod. And that's just how they talk then.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
12c. 1960 ADI have a brother. They say, you put us together, we are like one person, you know? When we are young, his hair, it is very blond, very light, and people say, he is the good one. And my hair it is very dark, darker than yours even, and people say I am the rogue, you know? I am the bad one. And now time passes, and my hair is gray. His hair too, I think, is gray. And you look at us, you would not know who was light, who was dark.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
13c. 1960 ADI would feel infinitely more comfortable in your presence if you would agree to treat gravity as a law, rather than one of a number of suggested options.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
14c. 1960 ADThe 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 / quote ↗
15c. 1960 ADNow me,” said Mr. Vandemar.“What number am I thinking of?” “I beg your pardon?” “What number am I thinking of?” repeated Mr. Vandemar. “It’s between one and a lot,” he added, helpfully.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
16c. 1960 ADSexton: I think the whole world's gone mad.Death: Uh-uh. It's always like this. You probably just don't get out enough.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
17c. 1960 ADCoraline tried drawing the mist. After ten minutes of drawing she still had a white sheet of paper with "MIST" written on it one corner in slightly wiggly letters. She grunted and passed it to her mother."Mm. Very modern, dear," said Coraline's mother.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
18c. 1960 ADWhat 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 foolin’ a soul.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
20c. 1960 ADPicking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you'd most like not to lose.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
22c. 1960 ADBooks make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside of them. And it's much cheaper to buy somebody a book than it is to buy them the whole world!Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
23c. 1960 ADI went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible.Neil Gaiman / quote ↗
