Quotes from The Wake

Neil Gaiman ·  191 pages

Rating: (37.7K votes)


“That which is dreamed can never be lost, can never be undreamed.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Wake


“Only the phoenix rises and does not descend. And everything changes. And nothing is truly lost.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Wake


“We were never lovers, and we never will be, now. I do not regret that, however. I regret the conversations we never had, the time we did not spend together. I regret that I never told him that he made me happy, when I was in his company. The world was the better for his being in it. These things alone do I now regret: things left unsaid. And he is gone, and I am old.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Wake


“Death’s a funny thing. I used to think it was a big, sudden thing, like a huge owl that would swoop down out of the night and carry you off. I don’t anymore. I think it’s a slow thing. Like a thief who comes to your house day after day, taking a little thing here and a little thing there, and one day you walk round your house and there’s nothing there to keep you, nothing to make you want to stay. And then you lie down and shut up forever. Lots of little deaths until the last big one.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Wake


“Omnia Mutantur, Nihil Interit. 'Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Wake



“It's astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself into, if one works at it. And astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself out of, if one assumes that everything will, somehow or other, work out for the best.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Wake


“I watched my life as if it were happening to someone else. My son died. And I was hurt, but I watched my hurt, and even relished it, a little, for now I could write a real death, a true loss. My heart was broken by my dark lady, and I wept, in my room, alone; but while I wept, somewhere inside I smiled.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Wake


“Whatever happened to me in my life, happened to me as a writer of plays. I'd fall in love, or fall in lust. And at the height of my passion, I would think, 'So this is how it feels,' and I would tie it up in pretty words. I watched my life as if it were happening to someone else. My son died. And I was hurt, but I watched my hurt, and even relished it, a little, for now I could write a real death, a true loss. My heart was broken by my dark lady, and I wept, in my room, alone; but while I wept, somewhere inside I smiled. For I knew I could take my broken heart and place it on the stage of The Globe, and make the pit cry tears of their own.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Wake


“And the state of his bathroom -- I'm not one to gossip, but there are things crusted on his sink that have not simply developed intelligent life, but have in all probability by now envolved their own political systems.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Wake


“He loved me. I do not doubt that. In hindsight, I do not believe that I loved him. I simply felt his love for me, burning and all-consuming, and reflected it back, as the cold light of the moon reflects the light of the sun. I did not know that at the time. I thought I loved him.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Wake



“The bonds of family bind us up, support us, help us. And they are also a bond from which it is difficult, perhaps impossible to extricate oneself.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Wake


“It's astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself into, if one works at it. And astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself out of, if one simply assumes that everything will, somehow or other, work out for the best." -Destruction”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Wake


“summer is a time for popsicles”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Wake


“Sometimes I suspect that we build our traps ourselves, then we back into them, pretending amazement the while.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from The Wake


About the author

Neil Gaiman
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