Quotes by Neil Gaiman

They were kissing. Put like that, and you could be forgiven for presuming that this was a normal kiss, all lips and skin and possibly even a little tongue. Youd miss how he smiled, how his eyes glowed. And then, after the kiss was done, how he stood, like a man who had just discovered the art of standing and had figured out how to do it better than anyone else who would ever come along.

For love is no part of the dreamworld. Love belongs to Desire, and Desire is always cruel.

They kissed for the first time then in the cold spring rain, though neither one of them now knew that it was raining. Tristrans heart pounded in his chest as if it was not big enough to contain all the joy that it held. He opened his eyes as he kissed the star. Her sky-blue eyes stared back into his, and in her eyes he could see no parting from her.

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.

You get what anybody gets - you get a lifetime.

Stories you read when youre the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes youll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit.

Face your life, its pain, its pleasure, leave no path untaken.

Youve a good heart. Sometimes thats enough to see you safe wherever you go. But mostly, its not.

I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when youre alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.

Do not lose hope — what you seek will be found. Trust ghosts. Trust those that you have helped to help you in their turn. Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story. (from Instructions)

It is a small world. You do not have to live in it particularly long to learn that for yourself. There is a theory that, in the whole world, there are only five hundred real people (the cast, as it were; all the rest of the people in the world, the theory suggests, are extras) and what is more, they all know each other. And its true, or true as far as it goes. In reality the world is made of thousands upon thousands of groups of about five hundred people, all of whom will spend their lives bumping into each other, trying to avoid each other, and discovering each other in the same unlikely teashop in Vancouver. There is an unavoidability to this process. Its not even coincidence. Its just the way the world works, with no regard for individuals or for propriety.

In every way that counted, I was dead. Inside somewhere maybe I was screaming and weeping and howling like an animal, but that was another person deep inside, another person who had no access to the lips and face and mouth and head, so on the surface I just shrugged and smile and kept moving. If I could have physically passed away, just let it all go, like that, without doing anything, stepped out of life as easily as walking through a door I would have done. But I was going to sleep at night and waking in the morning, disappointed to be there and resigned to existence.

Normally, in anything I do, Im fairly miserable. I do it, and I get grumpy because there is a huge, vast gulf, this aching disparity, between the platonic ideal of the project that was living in my head, and the small, sad, wizened, shaking, squeaking thing that I actually produce.

I think, well, Ive had a shit of a life, all things considered. It wasnt fair. Everyone Ive ever loved is dead, and my leg hurts all the bloody time... But I think, any God that can do sunsets like that, a different one every night... Strewth, well, youve got to respect the old bastard, havent you?

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

She seems so cool, so focused, so quiet, yet her eyes remain fixed upon the horizon. You think you know all there is to know about her immediately upon meeting her, but everything you think you know is wrong. Passion flows through her like a river of blood. She only looked away for a moment, and the mask slipped, and you fell. All your tomorrows start here.

If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.

Youre 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 youre dead, its gone. Over. Youve made what youve made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished.

Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here.

Words save our lives, sometimes.