Are you happy?” asked Mr. Nancy, suddenly. He had been staring at Shadow for several hours. Whenever Shadow glanced over to his right, Mr. Nancy was looking at him with his earth-brown eyes. “Not really, ” said Shadow. “But I’m not dead yet.” “Huh?” " 'Call no man happy until he is dead.’ Herodotus.” Mr. Nancy raised a white eyebrow, and he said, “I’m not dead yet, and, mostly because I’m not dead yet, I’m happy as a clamboy.” “The Herodotus thing. It doesn’t mean that the dead are happy, ” said Shadow. “It means that you can’t judge the shape of someone’s life until it’s over and done.” “I don’t even judge then, ” said Mr. Nancy. “And as for happiness, there’s a lot of different kinds of happiness, just as there’s a hell of a lot of different kinds of dead. Me, I’ll just take what I can get when I can get it. . Neil Gaiman
About This Quote

This quote is a great example of wordsmithing. It is made up of three separate quotes that are strung together in a way that creates a new meaning. This quote is relevant to all types of writing, but makes sense in short story writing because it provides two things: 1) The reader needs to be informed about the state of Mr. Nancy’s health, so he can understand what he means when he says “I’m not dead yet,” 2) He also needs to know what he means when he says “But I’m not dead yet.”

Source: American Gods

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