Quotes from Fables & Reflections

Neil Gaiman ·  264 pages

Rating: (41.9K votes)


“Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


“It is sometimes a mistake to climb; it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt. If you do not climb, you will not fall. This is true. But is it that bad to fail, that hard to fall?”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


“Some things are too big to be seen; some emotions are too huge to be felt.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


“Of course you don't believe in fairies. You're fifteen. You think I believed in fairies at fifteen? Took me until I was at least a hundred and forty. Hundred and fifty, maybe. Anyway, he wasn't a fairy. He was a librarian. All right?”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


“Never trust the storyteller. Only trust the story.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections



“You know what happens when you dream of falling? Sometimes you wake up.
Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


“It is sometimes a mistake to climb. It is always a mistake to never make the attempt.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


“Dreams are composed of many things, my son. Of images and hopes, of fears and memories. Memories of the past, and memories of the future...”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


“If you do not climb, you will not fall. This is true. But is it that bad to fail, that hard to fall?”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


“Trees there were, old as trees can be, huge and grasping with hearts black as sin. Strange trees that some said walked in the night.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections



“Bodies are strange. Some people have real problems with the stuff that goes on inside them. You find out that inside someone you know there's just mucus and meat and slime and bone. They menstruate, salivate, defecate and cry. You know? Sometimes it can just kill the romance. You know that?”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


“We write our names in the sand, and then the waves roll in and wash them away.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


“Value's in what people think. Not in what's real. Value's in dreams, boy.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


“You shouldn't trust the storyteller; only trust the story.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


“And all the time we spent in this place would fade and vanish, like a dawn dream on waking that colours the day but cannot be touched or remembered.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections



“- The myths are dead. The gods are dead. The ghosts and ghouls and phantoms are dead. There is only the State, and the People.
- No, Monsieur Robespierre. There is much more than that.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


“And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


“It is true that my rent is but 50 cents a week. It is true that my clothes were a gift from the city council. I exchange federal currency for my own, and thus I live. Many restaurants and eating houses now accept my scrip. This is my city, in my country. They treat me well here. I am the Emperor of the United States, Pain. I am content to be what I am. What more than that could any man desire?”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Fables & Reflections


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Neil Gaiman
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Popular quotes

“There once was a man who went to see a psychiatrist, crippled by a fear of flying. His phobia was based on the belief that there would be a bomb on any plane he boarded. The psychiatrist tried to shift the phobia but couldn‘t, so he sent his patient to a statistician. The statistician prodded a calculator and informed the man that the odds against there being a bomb on board the next flight he took were half a million to one. The man still wasn’t happy, and sat there convinced that he’d be on that one plane out of half a million. So the statistician prodded the calculator again and said ‘all right, would you feel safer if the odds were ten million to one against?’ The man said, yes, of course he would. So the statistician said ‘the odds against there being two, separate, unrelated bombs on board your next flight are exactly ten million to one against.’ The man looked puzzled, and said ‘that’s all well and good, but how does it help me?’ The statistician replied: ‘It’s very simple. You take a bomb on board with you.”
― Hugh Laurie, quote from The Gun Seller


“Find an anchor. Hold on tight. Do this and you’ll be alright.”
― Pepper Winters, quote from Debt Inheritance


“Colonel Melchett silently marvelled at the amount of aids to beauty that women could use. Rows of jars of face cream, cleansing cream, vanishing cream, skin-feeding cream! Boxes of different shades of powder. An untidy heap of every variety of lipstick. Hair lotions and “brightening” applications. Eyelash black, mascara, blue stain for under the eyes, at least twelve different shades of nail varnish, face tissues, bits of cotton wool, dirty powder-puffs. Bottles of lotions—astringent, tonic, soothing, etc. “Do you mean to say,” he murmured feebly, “that women use all these things?” Inspector Slack, who always knew everything, kindly enlightened him. “In private life, sir, so to speak, a lady keeps to one or two distinct shades, one for evening, one for day. They know what suits them and they keep to it. But these professional girls, they have to ring a change, so to speak. They do exhibition dances, and one night it’s a tango and the next a crinoline Victorian dance and then a kind of Apache dance and then just ordinary ballroom, and, of course, the makeup varies a good bit.” “Good lord!” said the Colonel. “No wonder the people who turn out these creams and messes make a fortune.” “Easy money, that’s what it is,” said Slack. “Easy money. Got to spend a bit in advertisement, of course.” Colonel”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Body in the Library


“Olive thought she had forgotten what pain could be. She was a railway tunnel in which a battering train had come to a fiery halt. She was a burrow in which a creature had wedged itself and could go neither forwards nor back.”
― A.S. Byatt, quote from The Children's Book


“Breathe in, breath out. Oxygen is carcinogenic and likely puts a limit on our life span. It would be unwise though, to try to extend life by not breathing at all.
Which of us doesn't do it? Either we loll in anaerobic stupor, too afraid to fill our lungs with risky beauty, or we roll out fire like dragons, destroying the world we love.
I try not to burn up my world with rage.
It is so hard.”
― Jeanette Winterson, quote from Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles


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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.

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