Why do we read? It’s not just for the entertainment bared between the pages of books, and not only for the escapism from real-life mundanities to the intricate offerings of imagination…. Reading also affords us an education, both mental and emotional, academic and spiritual (whatever form that may take for you). And some of the most inspirational quotes live within works of fantasy and fairytale, proving that when we read even the most unrealistic of stories we can learn the most real of life lessons.
These following quotes by Neil Gaiman for both children and adults–his own advice, as well as phrases found within his numerous works of magic and lore–express that very wonder and fulfillment. We’re celebrating his sixtieth birthday today with a batch of his best phrases.
“Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent.”
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“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.”
― American Gods
“Stories you read when you’re the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes you’ll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit.”
― M Is for Magic
“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.”
― Dream Country
“I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.”
― The Ocean at the End of the Lane
“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.”
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“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.”
― The Kindly Ones
“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”
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“Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”
― Fables & Reflections
“There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.”
― Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders
“Everybody has a secret world inside of them. I mean everybody. All of the people in the whole world, I mean everybody — no matter how dull and boring they are on the outside. Inside them, they’ve all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds… Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe.”
― A Game of You
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