Quotes From "Smoke And Mirrors: Short Fiction And Illusions" By Neil Gaiman

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Belinda stared into the fire for some time, thinking about what she had in her life, and what she had given up; and whether it would be worse to love someone who was no longer there, or not to love someone who was. Neil Gaiman
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I asked him if it were a mirage, and he said yes. I said it was a dream, and he agreed, But said it was the desert's dream not his. And he told me that in a year or so, when he had aged enough for any man, then he would walk into the wind, until he saw the tents. This time, he said, he would go on with them. Neil Gaiman
People talk about books that write themselves, and it's a...
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People talk about books that write themselves, and it's a lie. Books don't write themselves. It takes thought and research and backache and notes and more time and more work than you'd believe. Neil Gaiman
The irritating question they ask us -- us being writers...
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The irritating question they ask us -- us being writers -- is: "Where do you get your ideas?" Neil Gaiman
The irritating question they ask us -- us being writers...
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The irritating question they ask us -- us being writers -- is: "Where do you get your i Neil Gaiman
6
Dolorita Hunsickle says that the chipmunks tell your fortune if you catch them but I never did. She says a chipmunk told her she would grow up to be a famous ballerina and that she would die of consumption unloved in a boardinghouse in Prague. Neil Gaiman
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It is not that I was credulous, simply that I belived in all things dark and dangerous. It was part of my young creed that the night was full of ghosts and witches, hungry and flapping and dressed completely in black. Neil Gaiman
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Memory is the great deceiver. Perhaps there are some individuals whose memories act like tape recordings, daily records of their lives complete in every detail, but I am not one of them. My memory is a patchwork of occurrences, of discontinuous events roughly sewn together: The parts I remember, I remember precisely, whilst other sections seemed to have vanished completely. Neil Gaiman
9
Richard put away the Narnia books, convinced, sadly, that they were an allegory; that an author (whom he had trusted) had been attempting to slip something past him. He had had the same disgust with the Professor Challenger stories, when the bull-necked old professor became a convert to Spiritualistm; it was not that Richard had any problems believing in ghosts - Richard believed, with no problems or contradictions, in everything - but Conan Doyle was preaching, and it showed through the words. Richard was young, and innoncent in his fashion, and believed that authors should be trusted, and that there should be nothing hidden beneath the surface of a story. Neil Gaiman
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Sometimes you do things you regret, but there's nothing you can do about them. Times change. Doors close behind you. You move on. Neil Gaiman
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Perhaps it is true that all that happens is in accordance with Your will, and thus it is good. But sometimes You leave blood on Your instruments. Neil Gaiman
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As we write we summon little demons. Neil Gaiman