Neil's Perrenial New Year:

"May your 2002 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 to forget make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in 2002, you surprise yourself." --Neil Gaiman 12/31/01

I have to agree with Neil on this one, there's not much more he can say on the topic of New Years and New Beginnings than he did back in 2001. Happy New Year everyone, and look forward to more brilliant quotes, quips, bits, bytes, remarks, reminiscences, observations, and anecdotes from Google's #1 Neil here on Quotable Neil in 2006!

Boxing Day

“It's Boxing Day! As a kid I always liked Boxing Day best -- it seemed so anticlimactic, and I've always liked anticlimaxes. And then I moved to America, a country of 300 million people who mostly don't know what Boxing Day is. (Basically it's the day you eat leftovers and sprawl a lot, named after the Victorian custom of servants getting their holiday "boxes" -- gifts of money -- the day after Christmas.)” –Neil Gaiman 12/26/02

Three Wise Women

Goodness how I spoil you all. But, 'tis better to give and all that. Enjoy some "friends of Neil" quotes for Christmas.


"It looks as tho The Hot Birdchick, her husband and the Sexy Librarian will be coming over for Chirstmas day for something called Naked Christmas. I am assured it has much more to do with Pajamas and Pie and bad movies than it does with actual Nakedness. Fingers crossed." -- The Fabulous Lorraine 12/20/05 From her blog entry here.


"It's just past midnight and the house is mostly dark and very quiet. Tomorrow night, daughters and sons and friends will begin to gather, filling it with sound and light. We are strange birds and we will make strange bird noises. We will tell stories that only strange birds would tell and make jokes only strange birds could understand. We will cluster around tables of food and light and celebrate being strange birds in the way that only strange birds do.

Strange birds everywhere will do the same.

While I have a quiet moment to say it; wherever you are, (or who, or what, or why, or how) thank you and.....Peace." -- Lisa Snellings-Clark 12/21/05 Her blog here.


"I was in the cherub choir when I was three and I remember, there was a special church production that we put on at Christmas. I think you always want to be an angel when you're a little girl--either that or a devil. It's one or the other. But I ended up being the donkey. I know somebody has to be the donkey. But it's always that moment of where my father would say, "Be a good sport now, you be the donkey." That's my first memory of being in the choir." -- Tori Amos 11/02/98 From and interview with Yahoo! Music here.


Happy Festivus (A Festivus for the Rest of Us) to those Seinfeldians out there. and Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays.

On Santa's Siblings, and Neil's Beliefs

Last Three Christmas Quotes of the Season (See You at New Year!)

“Sooner or later you will see Alan Moore wandering the streets of Northampton like Santa Claus's demonic younger brother.” – Neil Gaiman (From the Online Chat between Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, and a Moderator on EOSCON 4.0: “Lighting Out for the Territory”. Go to this link for the complete transcript)

“When Alan [Moore] gets his photo taken he sort of looms grimly, and shadows wreathe around him, and he looks like Santa Claus's thinner, more murdererous, magical younger brother.” –Neil Gaiman 07/30/03

“My children have, on occasion, strongly suggested that there might not be a Father Christmas. They also seem very doubtful about the existence of the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny and the Weird Knife Lady In The Attic. I humour them by pretending to go along with all this, but I keep my own counsel on the matter.” –Neil Gaiman 12/01/04

A Few Christmas Quotes

"My assistant got me smoked salmon."--Neil Gaiman 12/25/03
(Not sure why that one struck me so funny, but it did. Sorry.--RRNN)


"No sign of my luggage yet, in case you were wondering. And I have just been told that I am needed downstairs to make cranberry sauce." --Neil Gaiman 12/25/04
(Or that one, I promise it's the last of the weird ones. Sorry again.--RRNN)


"I decided it might be fun to read a chapter a night of "A Christmas Carol", starting two nights ago. The first night, it was to Maddy and her friend, who put up with it stoically." --Neil Gaiman 12/25/03


"Next you'll tell me that... the General Public is not, to a man, woman and child, utterly disgusted and up in arms with the slaughtered red-nosed-reindeer done in lights hanging from a tree in Orlando" --Neil Gaiman 12/20/05


"My parents were never terribly comfortable with Christmas, being Jewish, but we kids lobbied for it and got it. And what the hell, Jews wrote all the best Christmas songs anyway." --Neil Gaiman 12/25/01


"Woken up by Maddy and Holly and taken downstairs, installed on a sofa, and it was time for presents. I think my favourite moment was watching Mike open his Godfather-Horse's-Head Pillow. (The Godfather's his favourite movie.)" --Neil Gaiman 12/25/04


"Was woken up too early and sat, blinking, on a couch, as the family opened presents -- some fun, some cool, some goofy..." --Neil Gaiman 12/25/03


"Every year I suggest faintly that it might be a fine way to have a Christmas 'I have a dream,' I tell them. 'A dream of sleeping in until maybe ten pm, and having a cup of tea, and then, after lunch we could open presents'... And they look at me, from the youngest to the oldest, and every year they shake their heads in the same sort of way. It'll never happen. And I grumble, but after about fifteen years I'd miss it terribly if they actually let me sleep." --Neil Gaiman 12/25/01


"You can still get friends memberships in the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund. The perfect Christmas/Channnukah/Kwanza/Solstice/Mithras's Birthday present..." --Neil Gaiman 12/23/02


"Am currently trying to get home [for the holidays]. Am also very tired, in Atlanta airport, and (because my plane in from the UK was delayed) there's no guarantee that the connection I'm about to get on will actually get me to a plane that will take me back to Minneapolis. Am starting to feel like one of those people in movies, the ones where you and John Candy eventually wind up finishing the journey in the back of a truck filled with Elvis impersonators... And John Candy's dead, now I come to think of it, which would make it a really weird journey indeed." --Neil Gaiman 12/22/04


"And a Merry Christmas to all our readers." --Neil Gaiman 12/25/02


"Which is a roundabout way of saying, compliments of the season to all of you. Thanks for reading. I hope you find something fun in your stockings." --Neil Gaiman 12/25/01



Merry Christmas, Happy Channnukah, Happy Kwanzaa, and a Wonderful Solstice to all of you Neil Gaiman fans out there! -- Really Rather Not Nice.

Opposing Viewpoints?

I don't think I have to work to hard to explain why I quoted Grant Morrison here. Besides the obvious synchronicity (or the opposite thereof) Morrison is another founding member of DC's "Vertigo Club" and a mean writer in his own right.

The interesting question is whether or not these two quotes actually contradict one another, or if they are simply two different sides of the same poyhedron.

"Real Jobs"

As for giving up (writing), well, sure, if you want to… There are undoubtedly hundreds of easier, less stressful, more straightforward jobs in the world. Personally, I can't think of anything else I'd rather do, but that's me.
–Neil Gaiman 02/03/04


Every now and again people write me kind letters letting me know just how much they'd like my job. On a day like today, I'd happily take their job. Even if it involves heavy lifting, standing around in the cold, or telling people they can't park there. Honest.
–Neil Gaiman 12/11/04

All my life, I've felt that I was getting away with something because I was just making things up and writing them down, and that one day there would be a knock, and a man with a clipboard would be standing there and say, "It says here you've just been making things up all these years. Now it's time to go off and work in a bank."
–Neil Gaiman (From an Interview with the Onion’s John Krewson, reproduced on Neil’s site, date unknown)

A few from Rachel A.

Here's an e-mail I got from the mysterious Rachel A. She had these quotes to toss out there:

A couple quotations that amused me...I don't know if you're looking
for plain amusement or that plus inspiration, but they are:

"Remember your name. Know how to spell it, even under pressure, such as being asked."

"Mr Gaiman just dropped his cellphone in his scrambled eggs. He thinks it's time for bed now."

And if you're looking for people-connected-to-Neil quotations, there are always ones from Tori like:

"Healing takes courage, and we all have
courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it."

and

"I think that people who can't believe in faeries aren't worth knowing..".

Yes. Well. Thank you for the site - it's great to reread all those quotations.

None of which I have any reference materials for (dates? sources?) but that I thought were worth adding to the site. I think you can reasonably expect to see some more quotes from the beautiful and talented Tori Amos up here at some point.

I'm taking to heart a lot of the suggestions you guys have put out there, and will most likely try to start posting more quotes without graphics. Just to get some volume to the site, so people have something to read.

For Instance:

"I try not to make the same mistakes. Wherever possible I'll go for new and different mistakes next time." –Neil Gaiman 11/27/05
(which I think will still look nice as a graphic at some later date)

and

Maddy had the entire journey to school to confront the dread embarrassment of the idea that, on arrival at school, I would get out of the car in dressing gown and slippers and then she'd have to get out on my side. We negotiated, and instead of dropping her off outside the school, I found a discreet spot in the car-park, and she slipped out there, pretending as hard as she could that she didn't know me. – Neil Gaiman –Neil Gaiman 12/05/05
(which would have just looked like a mess)



Thanks again for the e-mail Rachel!

p.s. Be sure to head over to the main Really Rather Not Nice Thoughts site (see the sidebar) for a short story about a children's theater operating while the world is ending. "Vaudeville in the Ashes".

The True Origin

"If I'm a fabulist, I have no idea why I am. (As I said to someone who asked a similar question at a Q&A recently, It's because I'm me and it's what I like to write. I don't think I have a convenient origin story, such as: 'When I was five years old I was bitten by a radioactive myth.')" -- Neil Gaiman 11/23/05

Some Corrections and Directions

AAARRGGHH!
So I fixed 'homage'. Yes, I do actually know how to spell, I'm a bit embarassed, and I often type faster than I read... if that makes sense... but all excuses aside, 'omage' was just an old-fashioned down-and-dirty spelling mistake.

It is so incredily cool to get so many suggestions from so many Neil fans. Along with my spelling of homage, I also added some 'admission guidlines' over in my righ-hand sidebar. Scroll aaaalll the way down please. I'm getting a lot of excellent quote ideas from my own journal-scanning, but the ones you guys toss out are beautiful and cool too, so keep tossing them out there. As I mention there, I'm doing quotes mainly from the blog, not as much from the books, comics, movies, interviews, etc. But with that said, there are some quotes and comments that CANNOT be ignored, as well as quotes from other folks (like today's Lisa Snellings quote) that also canot be ignored.

I'm also trying to combat shitty picture quality, and being new to some of this, will try my best to experiment and get things up to snuff.

I'll be trying to post new stuff on weekends mostly, so check back then for new quotes. I'll try to have at least three or four up each week. Some quotes will be oooold. Rarely will I quote directly from the current, daily blog, unless something cries out to be repeated. I'm setting up guidelines here people, not laws from the bible.

Tahnsk fro alal the speeleliing tops and help in the coomemnts for tht firts entrry.

--RRNN

Lisa on Creating

"No matter what you've felt, or thought, or seen in your deepest visions, no matter if these things tore you apart and put you back together differently, no one will ever see the work you didn't do." Lisa Snellings-Clark 06/17/05

Neil on Lisa Snellings-Clark

"Knowing Lisa, there could be anything in that box. It's huge. In the middle of the night, it could open, and something -- anything -- could scurry out... Assuming it is the statue and not some scuttling murdery thing, I'll try and put phots of it all installed up here." -- Neil Gaiman 12/02/05

Pink?

"Friends don't ask friends to wear pink socks" -- Neil Gaiman 02/26/02

All Fiction

"All fiction is fantasy." -- Neil Gaiman 02/26/02