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
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“The gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools. She'd”
― Larry Niven, quote from Ringworld


“A secret is a strange thing.

There are three kinds of secrets. One is the sort everyone knows about, the sort you need at least two people for. One to keep it. One to never know. The second is a harder kind of secret: one you keep from yourself. Every day, thousands of confessions are kept from their would-be confessors, none of these people knowing that their never-admitted secrets all boil down to the same three words: I am afraid.

And then there is the third kind of secret, the most hidden kind. A secret no one knows about. Perhaps it was known once, but was taken to the grave. Or maybe it is a useless mystery, arcane and lonely, unfound because no one ever looked for it.

Sometimes, some rare times, a secret stays undiscovered because it is something too big for the mind to hold. It is too strange, too vast, too terrifying to contemplate.

All of us have secrets in our lives. We’re keepers or keptfrom, players or played. Secrets and cockroaches — that’s what will be left at the end of it all.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, quote from The Dream Thieves


“I lied,” said the Dog cheerily. “That’s one of the reasons I’m the Disreputable Dog. Besides,”
― Garth Nix, quote from Abhorsen


“History isn't about dates and places and wars. It's about the people who fill the spaces between them.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from The Storyteller


“Mr Vimes," said Mrs Winkings, "ve cannot help but notice that you still haf not employed any of our members in the Vatch..."

Say 'Watch', why don't you? Vimes thought. I know you can. Let the twenty-third letter of the alphabet enter your life.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Thud!


Interesting books

The Origins of Totalitarianism
(5.6K)
The Origins of Total...
by Hannah Arendt
The Red Queen
(52.4K)
The Red Queen
by Philippa Gregory
House of Pleasure
(321)
House of Pleasure
by Caddy Rowland
Leadership Wisdom from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
(1.6K)
Leadership Wisdom fr...
by Robin S. Sharma
The Unseen Terrorist
(6)
The Unseen Terrorist
by Oche Otorkpa
The Prince in Waiting
(780)
The Prince in Waitin...
by John Christopher

About BookQuoters

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.