“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 pretend...”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“You know the best thing about aeroplanes? Apart from the peanuts in the little silver bags, I mean.
It's looking out of the windows at the clouds, and thinking, maybe I could go walking in there. Maybe it's a special place where everything's okay.
Sometimes I do go walking in the clouds, but it's just cold and wet and empty. But when you look out of a plane it's a special world... and I like that.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“She 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 from Brief Lives
“I like airplanes. I like anywhere that isn't a proper place. I like in betweens.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“Touched by her fingers, the two surviving chocolate people copulate desperately, losing themselves in a melting frenzy of lust, spending the last of their brief borrowed lives in a spasm of raspberry cream and fear.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“You got a lifetime. No more. No less.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“Delirium: "What's the name of the word for the precise moment when you realize that you've actually forgotten how it felt to make love to somebody you really liked a long time ago?"
Dream: "There isn't one."
Delirium: "Oh. I thought maybe there was.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“The stuff you bring back from dreams is free.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“Have you ever spent days and days and days making up flavors of ice cream that no one's ever eaten before? Like chicken and telepone ice cream? Green mouse ice cream was the worst. I didn't like that at all.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“Change. Change. Change. Change … change. Change. Chaaange. When you say words a lot they don't mean anything. Or maybe they don't mean anything anyway, and we just think they do.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“Do you know why I stopped being Delight, my brother? I do. There are things not in your book. There are paths outside this garden.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“One cannot begin a new dream without abandoning the last [one].”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“Is there a word for forgetting the name of someone when you want to introduce them to someone else at the same time you realize you've forgotten the name of the person you're introducing them to as well?"
"No.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“There are a number of paths that lead to this place. I have been avoiding them for some small time, now.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“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.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“When you dream, sometimes you remember. When you wake, you always forget.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“I walk across the dreaming sands under the pale moon: through the dreams of countries and cities, past dreams of places long gone and times beyond recall.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“DESTRUCTION: Our sister [Death] defines life, just as Despair defines hope, or Desire defines hatred, or as Destiny defines freedom.
MORPHEUS: And what do I define, by this theory of yours.
DESTRUCTION: Reality, perhaps.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“Hey, that's life, flick it off if you can't take a joke.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, the'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 pretend.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“What's the name of the word for the precise moment when you realize that you've actually forgotten how it felt to make love to somebody you really liked a long time ago?”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“You can indeed become lost, in dreams. And you may not always find yourself when you wake up.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“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 pretend.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“Delirium: Um. What’s the name of the word for things not being the same always. You know. I’m sure there is one. Isn’t there? There must be a word for it… the thing that lets you know time is happening. Is there a word?
Dream: Change.
Delirium: …I was afraid of that.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“It always rains on the unloved-wet dreams-a fishing expedition-she kisses wyverns (the disneyland analogy)-dinner etiquette and chocolate lovers-desire swears by the first circle-"things are changing"-what can possibly go wrong?”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“It's just that I get distracted, and I get Lost kind of easily, and sometimes I have really bad days....
....When, you know, I just want to Hide or Scream or Bleed or something, and.....All that...”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“To bite off your shadow is neither easy nor painless. It demands a single-mindedness that is almost unknown in this day.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“Of course, the truth is that no one likes change. People in hell not only refuse to leave it, they invite you in, too. Even people who have blasted the other lives that touched their own blasted lives proudly declare in old age that they would not change a thing -- all that cursing and screaming was their life, by God, and it is not possible to imagine any other. Change introduces unpredictability, uncertainty, a universe of disorder. Right before an amoeba splits in two, it says to itself, uh uh, no way, I ain't gonna do that, nope.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
“So what I want to know is, when I'm asleep, do I really remember how to fly? And forget how when I wake up? Or am I just dreaming I can fly?"
"When you dream, sometimes you remember. When you wake, you always forget."
"But that's not fair!"
"No.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Brief Lives
Neil Gaiman
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“You’re right,” Jacks said. “You’re not part of my world. You’re not one of those girls. And maybe that’s why.”
“Why what?”
“Why I can’t stop thinking about you.”
Maddy rolled her eyes. “Guys like you don’t say that to girls like me.”
“I’ve never said that to anyone, actually,” Jacks corrected. “In fact, I’ve never done anything like this before.” He let out a little laugh. “How am I doing?”
He swallowed hard, trying to push down his nervousness. He was astonished to realize he was nervous. Somehow being around Maddy just put him in a different space. Jacks felt so present.
Maddy stared at him, letting the anger and frustration surge through her.
“Why are you doing this to me?” she asked finally.
He paused, considering.
“I’m being honest. I know you may not believe me. But I haven’t been able to not think about you. When we were in the back at the restaurant, and . . .” Jacks’s voice trailed off, his face coloring. “I still feel terrible about what I did. I lied to you and, even though I had good reasons for it, it was wrong of me.”
Maddy studied him. Was he telling the truth?
Jacks smiled. “I mean this in the best possible way: I’m not going to leave you alone until you let me make it up to you. I’m serious. I’ll be here every night. You might as well get me some pajamas and a toothbrush.”
Despite her best efforts not to, Maddy laughed. She looked at Jacks and could see the faintest twinkle of light in his eyes.
“So what you’re saying is that I should just give in and let you make it up to me. Otherwise you’ll be tormenting me like this for the rest of my life?”
“Pretty much. Yeah.”
“Well.” She sighed. “What do you have in mind?”
“Come fly with me.”
― Scott Speer, quote from Immortal City
“It's said that 'power corrupts,' but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. When they do act, they think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is insatiable, implacable.”
― David Brin, quote from The Postman
“As Mother Teresa reminds us, “We cannot do great things on this earth. We can only do small things with great love.”
― Richard Carlson, quote from Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and it's all small stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life
“I began this path with a sense that an individual should be able to live in freedom among his neighbors, and not as a host for parasites, even if those parasites were endowed with power by the state. I had a sense that the individual should not be at the mercy of the bully or the mob, even if the bully or the mob was sanctioned by the state. I had a sense that if an individual was the target of aggression and I stood with him, or her, or them, I would have the satisfaction of knowing I had opposed villainy, and if others who shared my beliefs would join in the fight, then perhaps a measure at a time, evil would not prosper. I believed that each time malevolence and iniquity were thwarted the chances were increased that I could live in freedom … that I would not be at the mercy of the aggression of others.”
He captured them as he looked them in the eyes across the silent hall. “The measure of success from acting on these simple truths is all around us, hangs above us in the sky, pervades the system of our sun … and may now be found among the stars.”
”
― William C. Samples, quote from Fe Fi FOE Comes
“When under trial, let no one say: "I am being tried by God." For with evil things God cannot be tried, nor does he himself try anyone. -James 1:13”
― quote from New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
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