“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted just like that, and it didn't mean anything? What then?”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“What's your name,' Coraline asked the cat. 'Look, I'm Coraline. Okay?'
'Cats don't have names,' it said.
'No?' said Coraline.
'No,' said the cat. 'Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“Because,' she said, 'when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“We...we could be friends.'
We COULD be rare specimens of an exotic breed of dancing African elephants, but we're not. At least, I'M not.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“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.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“But how can you walk away from something and still come back to it?”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“It is astonishing just how much of what we are can be tied to the beds we wake up in in the morning, and it is astonishing how fragile that can be.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“The names are the first things to go, after the breath has gone, and the beating of the heart. We keep our memories longer than our names.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“The sky had never seemed so sky; the world had never seemed so world.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“I have no plans to love you," said Coraline. "No matter what. You can't make me love you.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“We are small but we are many
We are many we are small
We were here before you rose
We will be here when you fall”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“Nothing’s changed. You’ll go home. You’ll be bored. You’ll be ignored. No one will listen to you, really listen to you. You’re too clever and too quiet for them to understand. They don’t even get your name right.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“Mirrors,' she said, 'are never to be trusted.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“CORALINE'S STORY
THERE WAS A GIRL HER NAME WAS APPLE. SHE USED TO DANCE A LOT. SHE DANCED AND DANCED UNTIL HER FEET TURND INTO SOSSAJES. THE END.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“Coraline shivered. She preferred her other mother to have a location: if she were nowhere, then she could be anywhere. And, after all, it is always easier to be afraid of something you cannot see.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“I was kidnapped by aliens, they came down from outer space with ray guns, but I fooled them by wearing a wig and laughing in a foreign accent, and I escaped.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“Oh- my twitchy witchy girl
I think you are so nice,
I give you bowls of porridge
And I give you bowls of ice
Cream.
I give you lots of kisses,
And I give lots of hugs,
But I never give you sandwiches
With bugs
In.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“You know I love you,' said the other mother flatly.
'You have a very funny way of showing it,' said Coraline.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“The world seemed to shimmer a little at the edges.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“The cat wrinkled its nose and managed to look unimpressed. "Calling cats," it confided, "tends to be a rather overrated activity. Might as well call a whirlwind.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“They were having an argument as old and comfortable as an armchair, the kind of argument that no one ever really wins or loses but which can go on forever, if both parties are willing.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“On the first day Coraline's family moved in, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible made a point of telling Coraline how dangerous the well was, and they warned her to be sure she kept away from it. So Coraline set off to explore for it, so that she knew where it was, to keep away from it properly.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“There's a but, isn't there?" said Coraline. "I can feel it. Like a rain cloud.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“It won't hurt, said her other father. Coraline knew that when grown-ups told you something wouldn't hurt it almost always did. She shook her head.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“For a moment she felt utterly dislocated. She did not know where she was; she was not entirely sure who she was. It is astonishing just how much of what we are can be tied to the bed we wake up in in the morning and it is astonishing how fragile that can be.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“For tea she went down to see Misses Spink and Forcible. She had three digestive biscuits, a glass of limeade, and a cup of weak tea. The limeade was very interesting. It didn't taste anything like limes. It tasted bright green and vaguely chemical. Coraline liked it enormously. She wished they had it at home.
"How are your dear mother and father?" asked Miss Spink.
"Missing," said Coraline. "I haven't seen either of them since yesterday. I'm on my own. I think I've probably become a single child family.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“The cat looked as if it were about to say something sarcastic. Then it flicked its whiskers and said, "Challenge her. There's no guarantee she'll play fair, but her kind of thing loves games and challenges.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
“She sat down on one of her grandmother's uncomfortable armchairs, and the cat sprang up into her lap and made itself comfortable. The light that came through the picture window was daylight, real golden late-afternoon daylight, not a white mist light. The sky was a robin's-egg blue, and Coraline could see trees and, beyond the trees, green hills, which faded on the horizon into purples and grays. The sky had never seemed so sky, the world had never seemed so world ... Nothing, she thought, had ever been so interesting.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Coraline
Neil Gaiman
See more on GoodReads
“They are the we of me.”
― Carson McCullers, quote from The Member of the Wedding
“I have been beaten here,
locked away,
violated a hundred times
and a hundred times more.
I have been starved
and cheated,
tricked
and disgraced.
How odd it is that I am undone by the simple kindness of a small boy with a yellow pencil.”
― Patricia McCormick, quote from Sold
“I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.
Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from The Waste Land and Other Poems
“In the face of God's obvious inadequacies, the pious have generally held that one cannot apply earthly norms to the Creator of the universe. This argument loses its force the moment we notice that the Creator who purports to be beyond human judgment is consistently ruled by human passions— jealousy, wrath, suspicion, and the lust to dominate. A close study of our holy books reveals that the God of Abraham is a ridiculous fellow—capricious, petulant, and cruel—and one with whom a covenant is little guarantee of health or happiness. If these are the characteristics of God, then the worst among us have been created far more in his image than we ever could have hoped.”
― Sam Harris, quote from The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
“I know, I'm an idiot!" Leo moaned. "A brilliant idiot, but still an idiot.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Demigod Diaries
Pompeii
A Woman Of Thirty
Twisted
Finding Eden
Gods and Generals
Velvet Elvis: Repain...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
