Quotes from MirrorMask

Neil Gaiman ·  80 pages

Rating: (6.4K votes)


“We often confuse what we wish for with what is.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask


“You can't run away from home without destroying somebody's world.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask


“Careful lads," said the beetle at the front. "She's dangerous all right. Look at that changeable expression."
"I'm not dangerous," I told them.
"Dangerous. Not dangerous. Same thing," said the beetle.
"And what I say," said the next beetle along, "is, it's the dangerous ones you have to watch out for.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask


“Sometimes, "I told him, as the darkness swirled closer and closer, "you just have to say you're sorry."
It's more than that, and I think by then I knew it. It's more than saying sorry.
It's meaning it. It's letting the apology change things. But an apology is where it has to begin.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask


“A plop of rain hit me on the face, one of those early raindrops that turns up five minutes ahead of all the others to let you know it's time to get indoors.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask



“The juggler seemed worried. "Throw it a book," he said.

I threw it a book, and it tore into it, like a cat ripping a small animal apart; and while the creature ate its book the juggler pushed the door open. He nearly fell into a deep chasm on the other side. "Not a disaster," he said, as if he was trying to convince himself. "We need more books. Big books."

It didn't seem like a good time for reading, but I pulled two huge old books off the shelf in the corner and carried them over to him. He took one, but didn't read it. He told it what a bad book it was and threw it on the ground. The book bounced in the air and hung there quivering, and the juggler man jumped onto it and began to float away. "As long as they think you don't like them," said the juggler, "they migrate back to the library. And we get a free ride."

I rode next to him on my book, and we crossed the chasm safely. The books floated away and I waved them good-bye.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask


“There was a grumpy librarian in the library. I could tell that he was the librarian because he seemed to be made of books. I told him that we needed information, and he got us some butterfly nets and sent us up to the top floor of the library.

I wondered why we were carrying nets. Valentine didn't know.

The book I wanted was pretty obvious. It was called A History of Everything.

Finding it was easy. Catching it, however, was not. The moment I reached for it, the whole shelfful of books took off into the air, fluttering like pigeons, and suddenly I knew what the butterfly nets were for.

I waved the net about and eventually I caught A History of Everything. As soon as I'd got it, all the rest of the books flapped back to their shelf, all except one, a little red-covered book, which fluttered over my head happily.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask


“Valentine preened, "Oh, I'm a panther," he said. "I shall slip unnoticed through the darkness like a dark unnoticeable slippy thing.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask


“Valentine," I said, "are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Absolutely," he said. "If we put little wheels on our feet we could just roll around everywhere.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask


“It's not hard to mess things up.
It's a lot harder to try and put the world back together again.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask



“We've had our ups and downs since then, but that's what families have, ups and downs.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask


About the author

Neil Gaiman
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Popular quotes

“You are always new. THe last of your kisses was ever the sweetest; the last smile the brightest; the last movement the gracefullest. When you pass'd my window home yesterday, I was fill'd with as much admiration as if I had then seen you for the first time...Even if you did not love me I could not help an entire devotion to you.”
― John Keats, quote from Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne


“What’s the verdict?” Kimmie asks, peering back at me.
I stare down at the jumble of words. “I can’t quite tell yet.”
“Give us a clue,” Wes says. “I love puzzles.”
“That’s because you are one,” Kimmie jokes.
I read them the list of words: ARE, ALONE, YOU, NEVER, EYE, WATCHING, ALWAYS, AM.
Not five seconds later, Wes has the whole thing figured out. “YOU ARE NEVER ALONE. EYE AM ALWAYS WATCHING!” he says, making his voice all deep and throaty.
“Wait, seriously?” I ask, completely bewildered by the idea that he’d be able to unravel the message so quickly. I look at the individual words, making sure they’re all included, and that he didn’t add any extra.
“What can I say? I’m good at puzzles.”
“Are you good at making them, too?” Kimmie asks. “Because it’s a little scary how you were able to figure that out so fast.”
“Do you think it matters that the “eye” in the puzzle is the noun and not the pronoun?” I ask them.
“Since when is it a requirement for psychos to be good in English?” Wes asks.
“Only you would know.” Kimmie glares at him.
“Plus, it’s a puzzle,” he says, ignoring her comment. “You have to expect a few quirks.”
“I don’t know,” I say, still staring at the words. “Maybe there’s some other message here. Maybe we need to try unscrambling it another way.”
“Such as ‘EYE AM NEVER ALONE. YOU ARE ALWAYS WATCHING,’” he suggests. “Or perhaps the ever-favorite. ‘YOU ARE NEVER WATCHING. EYE AM ALWAYS ALONE.’”
Kimmie scoots farther away from him in her seat. “Okay, you really are starting to scare me.”
― Laurie Faria Stolarz, quote from Deadly Little Games


“You can call me Boss though, seeing as though you're only the assistant.”
― quote from Welcome to the Underworld


“We were like matching bookends, almost touching but with volumes between us and stories, so many stories.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Drowning Instinct


“She was talking to a tree. Just talking to a tree. Totally normal. People probably did it every day here. They're only trees. She fought an insane urge to laugh.”
― Ruth Frances Long, quote from The Treachery of Beautiful Things


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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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