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I always say that if you're a novelist, the challenge is not writing what you think ought to happen, but trying in some way to write what did happen in a world that doesn't necessarily exist.

Neil Gaiman

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Neil Gaiman
Age: 64
Born: 1960
Born: November 10
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Neil Richard Gaiman
Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman
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More quotes by Neil Gaiman

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Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you'd most like not to lose.
Neil Gaiman
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I just want you to know,' said the girl, coldly, 'that whoever you are and whatever you intend with me, I shall give you no aid of any kind, nor shall I assist you, and I shall do whatever is in my power to frustrate your plans and devices.' And then she added, with feeling, 'Idiot.
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How can you be happy in this world? You have a hole in your heart. You have a gateway inside you to lands beyond the world you know. They will call you, as you grow.
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There's a tale in the Caballa that suggests that the Angel of Death is so beautiful that upon seeing it (or him, or her) you fall in love so hard, so fast, that your soul is pulled out through your eyes. I like that story.
Neil Gaiman
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I believe that stories are incredibly important, possibly in ways we don't understand, in allowing us to make sense of our lives, in allowing us to escape our lives, in giving us empathy and in creating the world that we live in.
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I was a book-y child. I was much more book-y than dark.
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Where magic is concerned, there is always an initial decision, an initial willingness to let it enter your life. If that is not there neither is magic.
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Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.
Neil Gaiman
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I think hell is something you carry around with you, not somewhere you go.
Neil Gaiman
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He told me not to seek revenge, but to seek the Buddha,' said the fox spirit, sadly. 'Wise counsel,' said the fox of dreams. 'Vegeance can be a road that has no ending. You would be wise to avoid it. And...?' 'I shall seek the Buddha,' said the fox, with a toss of her head. 'But first I shall seek revenge.
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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
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Style is made up of whatever an author can't avoid doing.
Neil Gaiman
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People kill what they fear. They burned, and drowned, and hanged those they saw as witches, the devil's servants: the wise women and the cunning men, the unfortunate, the lost and the strange
Neil Gaiman
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Names come and names go.
Neil Gaiman
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I like reading. I prefer not reading on my computer, because that makes whatever I am reading feel like work. I do not mind reading on my iPad.
Neil Gaiman
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If I come back, it will be a place, but it won't be a home any longer.
Neil Gaiman
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Coming over from England, I was awe-struck by what Americans do at Halloween. I find it magnificent. In England, you get the occasional fancy dress party.
Neil Gaiman
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Can you believe it? Fifty miles from McDonald's. I didn't think there was anywhere in the world that was fifty miles from McDonald's.
Neil Gaiman
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Everything he had ever done that had been better left undone. Every lie he had told — told to himself, or told to others. Every little hurt, and all the great hurts. Each one was pulled out of him, detail by detail, inch by inch. The demon stripped away the cover of forgetfulness, stripped everything down to truth, and it hurt more than anything.
Neil Gaiman
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Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one.
Neil Gaiman