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ca58a0c
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Adults follow paths. Children explore. Adults are content to walk the same way, hundreds of times, or thousands; perhaps it never occurs to adults to step off the paths, to creep beneath rhododendrons, to find the spaces between fences. I was a child, which meant that I knew a dozen different ways of getting out of our property and into the lane, ways that would not involve walking down our drive.
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Neil Gaiman |
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80e25ff
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Then, one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...you give them a piece of you. They don't ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore.
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interdependence
life
love
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Neil Gaiman |
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d83ccfa
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He had noticed that events were cowards: they didn't occur singly, but instead they would run in packs and leap out at him all at once.
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Neil Gaiman |
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137e380
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Sometimes we can choose the paths we follow. Sometimes our choices are made for us. And sometimes we have no choice at all.
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Neil Gaiman |
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d528f41
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I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible.
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Neil Gaiman |
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a3c09f2
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I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here, I can pretend...I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come, and gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can prete..
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stars
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Neil Gaiman |
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e3f70c7
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Oh, monsters are scared," said Lettie. "That's why they're monsters."
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scared
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Neil Gaiman |
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e55eeba
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That which is dreamed can never be lost, can never be undreamed.
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Neil Gaiman |
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3b9922e
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There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous.
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righteousness
war
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Neil Gaiman |
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b9b8f25
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A philosopher once asked, "Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?" Pointless, really..."Do the stars gaze back?" Now, that's a question."
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stars
human
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Neil Gaiman |
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3493d0c
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Many people, meeting Aziraphale for the first time, formed three impressions: that he was English, that he was intelligent, and that he was gayer than a treeful of monkeys on nitrous oxide.
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Neil Gaiman Terry Pratchett |
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9ea8981
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Even nothing cannot last forever.
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Neil Gaiman |
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09167ab
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Have been unavoidably detained by the world. Expect us when you see us.
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Neil Gaiman |
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7b177de
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I mean, maybe I am crazy. I mean, maybe. But if this is all there is, then I don't want to be sane.
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sanity
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Neil Gaiman |
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5f0a229
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You have to believe. Otherwise, it will never happen.
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Neil Gaiman |
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a44433a
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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")"
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Neil Gaiman |
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6910650
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To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due.
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Neil Gaiman |
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ca5e03b
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Every lover is, in his heart, a madman, and, in his head, a minstrel.
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lover
madman
minstrel
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Neil Gaiman |
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1a4f9ff
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You're 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 you're dead, it's gone. Over. You've made what you've made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished.
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inspirational
potential
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Neil Gaiman |
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0fc397c
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And did I pass?" The face of the old woman on my right was unreadable in the gathering dusk. On my left the younger woman said, "You don't pass or fail at being a person, dear."
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Neil Gaiman |
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d9372cd
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Anyone who believes what a cat tells him deserves all he gets.
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lies
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Neil Gaiman |
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362af8a
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Stories, like people and butterflies and songbirds' eggs and human hearts and dreams, are also fragile things, made up of nothing stronger or more lasting than twenty-six letters and a handful of punctuation marks. Or they are words on the air, composed of sounds and ideas-abstract, invisible, gone once they've been spoken-and what could be more frail than that? But some stories, small, simple ones about setting out on adventures or people ..
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Neil Gaiman |
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e5f57ce
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There are only two worlds - your world, which is the real world, and other worlds, the fantasy. Worlds like this are worlds of the human imagination: their reality, or lack of reality, is not important. What is important is that they are there. these worlds provide an alternative. Provide an escape. Provide a threat. Provide a dream, and power; provide refuge, and pain. They give your world meaning. They do not exist; and thus they are all ..
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importance
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Neil Gaiman |
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ca191ca
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Only the phoenix rises and does not descend. And everything changes. And nothing is truly lost.
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Neil Gaiman |
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32d7be2
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People believe, thought Shadow. It's what people do. They believe, and then they do not take responsibility for their beliefs; they conjure things, and do not trust the conjuration. People populate the darkness; with ghosts, with gods, with electrons, with tales. People imagine, and people believe; and it is that rock solid belief, that makes things happen.
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Neil Gaiman |
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0229d52
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Everybody going to be dead one day, just give them time.
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mortality
humor
patience
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Neil Gaiman |
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f22a7dd
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The future came and went in the mildly discouraging way that futures do.
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time
passage-of-time
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Neil Gaiman |
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d990d43
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How do I know you'll keep your word?" asked Coraline. "I swear it," said the other mother. "I swear it on my own mother's grave." "Does she have a grave?" asked Coraline. "Oh yes," said the other mother. "I put her in there myself. And when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back."
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humor
mothers
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Neil Gaiman |
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4b42d69
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CHORONZON: I am a dire wolf, prey-stalking, lethal prowler. MORPHEUS: I am a hunter, horse-mounted, wolf-stabbing. CHORONZON: I am a horsefly, horse-stinging, hunter-throwing. MORPHEUS: I am a spider, fly-consuming, eight legged. CHORONZON: I am a snake, spider-devouring, posion-toothed. MORPHEUS: I am an ox, snake-crushing, heavy-footed. CHORONZON: I am an anthrax, butcher bacterium, warm-life destroying. MORPHEUS: I am a world, space-floa..
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hope
wisdom
outwit
cunning
insight
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Neil Gaiman |
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10fbcea
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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')
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story
trust
life
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Neil Gaiman |
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eca1b06
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I have always felt that violence was the last refuge of the incompetent, and empty threats the last sanctuary of the terminally inept.
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Neil Gaiman |
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2cc4200
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Monsters come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them are things people are scared of. Some of them are things that look like things people used to be scared of a long time ago. Sometimes monsters are things people should be scared of, but they aren't.
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fear
neil-gaiman
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Neil Gaiman |
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d2fa2c4
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Adventures are all very well in their place, but there's a lot to be said for regular meals and freedom from pain.
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pain
freedom
comfort
contrast
meals
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Neil Gaiman |
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8a8a83c
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I liked myths. They weren't adult stories and they weren't children's stories. They were better than that. They just .
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ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane
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Neil Gaiman |
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2b9246b
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25 And the Lord spake unto the Angel that guarded the eastern gate, saying 'Where is the flaming sword that was given unto thee?' 26 And the Angel said, 'I had it here only a moment ago, I must have put it down some where, forget my own head next.' 27 And the Lord did not ask him again.
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heaven
god
humor
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Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett |
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3bca347
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Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here.
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inspirational
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Neil Gaiman |
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7eed105
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There's none so blind as those who will not listen.
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stubbornness
paraphrased
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Neil Gaiman |
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3267984
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Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.
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you
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Neil Gaiman |
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64b38c3
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What power would hell have if those imprisoned here would not be able to dream of heaven?
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Neil Gaiman |
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dafad75
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Name the different kinds of people,' said Miss Lupescu. 'Now.' Bod thought for a moment. 'The living,' he said. 'Er. The dead.' He stopped. Then, '... Cats?' he offered, uncertainly.
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people
living
humor
guess
kinds
kinds-of-people
challenge
dead
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Neil Gaiman |
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24b1fa2
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I miss you', he admitted. 'I'm here', she said. 'That's when I miss you most. When you're here. When you aren't here, when you're just a ghost of the past or a dream from another life, it's easier then.
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Neil Gaiman |
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06197bd
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I am the most miserable person who ever lived," he said... "You are young, and in love," said Primus. "Every young man in your position is the most miserable young man who ever lived."
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misery
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Neil Gaiman |
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4ae2c3b
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You don't pass or fail at being a person, dear.
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Neil Gaiman |
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7b89704
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There was a girl, and her uncle sold her. Put like that it seems so simple. No man, proclaimed Donne, is an island, and he was wrong. If we were not islands, we would be lost, drowned in each other's tragedies. We are insulated (a word that means, literally, remember, made into an island) from the tragedy of others, by our island nature and by the repetitive shape and form of the stories. The shape does not change: there was a human being w..
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Neil Gaiman |