To say Neil Gaiman is one of the best authors of his generation would be an understatement. And you know I don’t do those. He is one of my all-time favorite authors, which is why I treasure a few hundred Neil Gaiman quotes as both pick-me-ups and words of wisdom.
Today, I decided to share some of those with you. For those who don’t know, Neil Gaiman is a fantasy writer that gifted the world with works such as Sandman, The Anansi Boys, American Gods, Coraline, and Good Omens (which he co-wrote with the famous sir Terry Pratchett).
His vast imagination and a penchant for not following the traditional (dull) rules of writing fiction is what delights me the most. Every time I pick up a Gaiman book, I know I’m in for a treat. And it doesn’t matter if I’m picking up his graphic novels, fantasy books, or some of his works that were meant for children. Either way, he’ll dazzle me once more.
Some of these quotes are pure nuggets of wisdom, while others will leave you laughing out loud. Hopefully, they’ll highlight at least a tiny bit of the man’s brilliance and inspire you to read some of his works (or write some of your own).
26 Best Neil Gaiman Quotes to Start the Day With
Inspiring Neil Gaiman Quotes
#1. “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ― Neil Gaiman, Coraline
#2. “When I was a child, adults would tell me not to make things up, warning me of what would happen if I did. As far as I can tell so far, it seems to involve lots of foreign travel and not having to get up too early in the morning.” ― Neil Gaiman, Smoke and Mirrors
#3. “So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.”
#4. “The one thing you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can. The moment that you feel that just possibly you are walking down the street naked…that’s the moment you may be starting to get it right.” ― Neil Gaiman, Make Good Art
#5. “Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.”
#6. “There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.” ― Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders
#7. “You don’t pass or fail at being a person, dear.”
Neil Gaiman Quotes About Creating and Storytelling
#8. “The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.”
#9. “Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten.”
#10. “Sometimes the best way to learn something is by doing it wrong and looking at what you did.”
#11. “Life is always going to be stranger than fiction, because fiction has to be convincing, and life doesn’t.”
#12. “Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and dreams. They are journeys you can make to the far side of the universe and still be back in time for dinner.”
#13. “When you’re scared but you still do it anyway, that’s brave.”
#14. “It is sometimes a mistake to climb; it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt. If you do not climb, you will not fall. This is true. But is it that bad to fail, that hard to fall?”
Neil Gaiman Quotes That Make Awesome Lessons About Life and Love
#15. “It’s like the people who believe they’ll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn’t work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. If you see what I mean.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
#16. “As sure as water’s wet and days are long and a friend will always disappoint you in the end.” ― Neil Gaiman, American Gods
#17. “Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like ‘maybe we should be just friends’ 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 real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Kindly Ones
#18. “Life ― and I don’t suppose I’m the first to make this comparison ― is a disease: sexually transmitted, and invariably fatal.”
#19. “I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you’re alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.” ― Neil Gaiman, American Gods
#20. “Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Kindly Ones
#21. “People think dreams aren’t real just because they aren’t made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes.”
Funniest Neil Gaiman Quotes
#22. “What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.” ― Neil Gaiman, American Gods
#23. “Morning has broken. But we’ve glued it back together again and are confident no one will notice.”
#24. “I have been to WalMart at midnight, & returned with a rawhide bone. I have been to Walmart at midnight, & you should not go there alone.”
#25. “I believe that it is difficult to kill an idea because ideas are invisible and contagious, and they move fast.”
#26. “He said nothing: seldom do those who are silent make mistakes.” ― Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology
To Conclude
There you have it! Those are my favorite Neil Gaiman quotes. They inspire me to be a better writer and comfort me when I’m feeling down. Hopefully, they’ll do the same for you. If you liked them, make sure to pick up a book or two of his. Believe me when I say — you won’t regret it!
