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"48 Neil Gaiman Quotes & Sayings

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Born: 10 November 1960 | Author |

If 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.

Art Nice Already Next
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This is a work of fiction. All the characters in it, human and otherwise, are imaginary, excepting only certain of the fairy folk, whom it might be unwise to offend by casting doubts on their existence. Or lack thereof.

Casting Certain Characters Doubts
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It is a fool's prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak.
Else Fool No One Prerogative
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We all not only could know everything. We do. We just tell ourselves we don't to make it all bearable.
Bearable Could Everything Just
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A nice, easy place for freedom of speech to be eroded is comics, because comics are a natural target whenever an election comes up.

Because Comics Easy Election
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Also, I've already won all the awards.

Also Already Awards Won
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As far as I'm concerned, the entire reason for becoming a writer is not having to get up in the morning.

As Far As Becoming Concerned Entire
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Because, if one is writing novels today, concentrating on the beauty of the prose is right up there with concentrating on your semi-colons, for wasted effort.

Beauty Because Concentrating Effort
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Great, big, serious novels always get awards. If it's a battle between a great, big, serious novel and a funny novel, the funny novel is doomed.

Always Awards Battle Between
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I don't know if proud is the right word, but I am somebody who does not, on the whole, have the highest regard for my own stuff in that when I look all I get to see are the flaws.

Am Does Flaws Get
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I loved writing a book in which, in some ways, it's very, very classical, and in some ways I'm breaking lots of rules about what you can do and what you can't do.

About Book Breaking Classical
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I started writing when I was about 20, 21 maybe.

About Maybe Started Writing
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I think of myself as a very lazy author.
Author I Think Lazy Myself
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I wanted to write something that would be a comedy in the sense of making people feel happier when they finish it than they did when began it.

Began Comedy Did Feel
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I was always so relieved that anyone wants to publish anything I've written.
Always Anyone Anything Publish
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I'll agonize over sentences. Mostly because you're trying to create specific effects with sentences, and because there are a number of different voices in the book.

Because Book Create Different
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I'm a fairly undisciplined writer.

Fairly Book Undisciplined Writer
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In many ways, it was much, much harder to get the first book contract. The hardest thing probably overall has been learning not to trust people, publicists and so forth, implicitly.

Been Book Contract First
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Life - and I don't suppose I'm the first to make this comparison - is a disease: sexually transmitted, and invariably fatal.

Comparison Disease Fatal First
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Partly because I get such astonishingly nice fans.

Because Fans Get Nice
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Rock and roll stars have it much better than writers when they're on a tour.
Better Much Rock Roll
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So the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is out there preserving and fighting for, and sometimes winning and sometimes losing, the fight for First Amendment rights in comics and, more generally, for freedom of speech.

Amendment Amendment Rights Book Comic
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The current total of countries in the world with First Amendments is one. You have guaranteed freedom of speech. Other countries don't have that.

Amendment Countries Current First
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The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before.
Always Before Brighter Just
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There's a glorious sense of freedom in comedy, just allowing myself to tell jokes, allowing myself to interrupt myself and tell old African folk stories that I made up - or didn't - and Jamaican stories.

African Allowing Comedy Folk
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You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it.

Being Between Bored Daydreaming
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I lost some time once. It's always in the last place you look for it.

Always Last Look Lost
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And there never was an apple, in Adam's opinion, that wasn't worth the trouble you got into for eating it.
Adam Apple Eating Got
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Is the chemical aftertaste the reason why people eat hot dogs, or is it some kind of bonus?
Bonus Chemical Dogs Eat
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I was the kind of kid whose parents would drop him off at the local town library on their way to work, and I'd go and work my way through the children's area.

Area Children Drop Go
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Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten.

Adventures Ashes Be True Dust
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It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.

Always Been Children Clothes
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Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.

Been Chest Ever Get
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The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.

Build Dance Draw Else
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Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

Any Best Honestly Matter
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I started out writing much more science fictiony stuff and writing about science fiction.
About Fiction More Much
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Like some kind of particularly tenacious vampire the short story refuses to die, and seems at this point in time to be a wonderful length for our generation.

Die Generation Kind Length
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I think the short story is a very underrated art form. We know that novels deserve respect.
Art Art Form Deserve Form
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The short story is still like the novel's wayward younger brother, we know that it's not respectable - but I think that can also add to the glory of it.

Add Also Brother Glory
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The biggest difference between England and America is that England has history, while America has geography.

America Between Biggest Biggest Difference
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Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and dreams. They are journeys you can make to the far side of the universe and still be back in time for dinner.

Back Dinner Dreams Far
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The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity.

Activity Children Literate Make
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I don't think there is such a thing as a bad book for children.
Bad Book Children Such A Thing
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Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals.

Allowing Building Empathy Function
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When I was 7, my proudest possession would have been my bookshelf 'cause I had alphabetized all of the books on my bookshelf.

Been Books Cause Had
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My stuff gets published in some countries as fiction and in some countries as fantasy. It's just where they think it will do best in the bookshops.

Best Countries Fantasy Fiction
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Every now and then I'll do little things, a short story or something, that doesn't have any fantastical elements, but mostly I like the power of playing God and I like to imagine things.

Any Elements Every God
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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.

Am Because Computer Feel
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Neil Gaiman Quotes & Sayings