People want to forget the impossible. It makes their world safer.
“
| — | Neil Gaiman, the Graveyard Book (via oh-silly-dreams) |
And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.
“
| — | Neil Gaiman, The University of Arts in Philadelphia Commencement Speech (via weekipedia) |
I gave my first ever commencement speech to the graduating class of 2012 at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
I think I told them everything important that I knew about going out into the world and being an artist, so I may never need to give another one.
The all-ten-volumes-in-one-slipcase-edition of SANDMAN comes out in November! I’m thrilled. You have no idea how long I’ve been asking DC to do one of these. (Er, about 16 years.)
(Edit to add: lots of questions coming in. I believe it’ll be about $199, so the books are cover price but the slipcase is free. Probably cheaper if you buy it at places that discount books. These are the recoloured editions that use the Absolute edition recolouring of the first few books. And last time DC did something like this they also sold the slipcase separately.)
When we hold each other, in the darkness, it doesn’t make the darkness go away. The bad things are still out there. The nightmares still walking. When we hold each other we feel not safe, but better. “It’s all right” we whisper, “I’m here, I love you.” and we lie: “I’ll never leave you.” For just a moment or two the darkness doesn’t seem so bad.
“
| — | Neil Gaiman (via themorninglight) |
A reminder that you can read “A Study In Emerald” for free at NeilGaiman.com. It’s a PDF. You can download it…
- http://www.neilgaiman.com/mediafiles/exclusive/shortstories/emerald.pdf
Hello. I’m Neil Gaiman, I’m a multi-award-winning author of lots and lots and lots of different things, lots of awards. So when I heard that I won the SFX Screenwriting Award for Excellence for my Doctor Who episode The Doctor’s Wife, my reaction was just…
Actually, what I was really just trying to say, was, Thank You. So much.
Have you ever been in love? Horrible, isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens your heart and it means someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses. You build up this whole armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life…you give them a piece of you. They don’t ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you, or smile at you, and then your life isn’t your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so a simple phrase like “maybe we should just be friends” or “how very perceptive” turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It’s a soul-hurt, a body-hurt. A real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. Nothing should be able to do that. Especially not love.
“
| — | Rose Walker, from The Sandman by Neil Gaiman (via vivatregina) |
“You know when I said I knew little about love? That wasn’t true. I know a lot about love. I’ve seen it, seen centuries and centuries of it, and it was the only thing that made watching your world bearable. All those wars, pain, lies, hate — it made me want to turn away and never look down again. But you see, the way that mankind loves, you could search the furthest reaches of the universe and never find anything more beautiful. So yes, I know that love is unconditional. But I also know that it can be unpredictable, unexpected, uncontrollable, unbearable and strangely easy to mistake for loathing. And what I’m trying to say is… I think I love you. My heart… It feels like my chest can barely contain it, like it doesn’t belong to me anymore. It belongs to you. And if you wanted it, I’d wish for nothing in exchange — no gifts, no goods, no demonstrations of devotion — nothing but knowing you love me too. Just your heart, in exchange for mine.”
“Then, one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life… you give them a piece of you. They don’t ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn’t your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It’s a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.”
- Neil Gaiman
