Random Quotes of the Arbitrary Sort
No explanations, no apologies. Just quotes that had no other homes and decided to band together to form this week's Quotable Neil. -- RRNN
“Got up, did another TV interview, was fed lunch (Polish mountain trout, yum) by my Polish publisher, determined that I should never go without lunch in Poland ever again (the 6ths song "In the City in the Rain" playing in my head as we ate, as it has several times during this trip so far, although this was the only time I've eaten outside in the rain, under a giant umbrella), then waved goodbye to my new extended Polish family of publishers and translators and several children (not mine, theirs) in Warsaw airport, and headed off on a plane to Copenhagen.”
-- Neil Gaiman 05/11/03
“Look! …Embarrassing tour photos (I need to caption them, I suppose. Or I should get Jennifer Hershey, who took many of them, to caption them. This is Neil signing in Chicago. This is Neil looking dazed in Cleveland. This is Neil writing a blogger entry on the Libretto in a sushi place in... where was it? Argh. I don't remember. That is why Jennifer needs to caption them.)”
-- Neil Gaiman 11/07/01
“There is something about enthusiastic human stupidity that fascinates me. It looks like every credit card company responsible for every credit card in my wallet immediately went "He's trying to buy a TV in Poland? This is an odd and anomalous thing to do. We will deny it and put a block on the card," ...except, of course, for the credit card department of my local bank. My local bank went, "He's using his bank card as a credit card for the very first time, and buying thousands of dollars of electrical goods in Warsaw? Well, it's about time he started using that card." I heard that they seemed rather disappointed to learn that it wasn't actually me buying computers and TVs all over Warsaw (I suppose they thought it was just the kind of unusual thing that I might be counted on to do), and tomorrow my wife has to go in to the bank and fill out forms promising it wasn't me buying all those TVs.”
-- Neil Gaiman 05/11/03
“Sorry about not posting – life’s currently turned into a mad game of ping pong with me as the ball. Scribble scribble scribble type type type.”
-- Neil Gaiman 04/08/06
“A short post to say that, yes, we do know the FAQs are coming out black on black right now, and, no, we aren't just doing it because we thought it would look cool. This is not frustrating stylishness, as several of you seem to think; this is just a common-or-garden cock up.
But you can think it's style if you like...”
-- Neil Gaiman 10/05/01
“I had some brilliant idea of linking Foodporn and Bookslut as a sort of look! cool sites that sound like they're rude but aren't! thing, but I can't be bothered, so I shall just put in a plug for the Bookslut blogger, and the whole site.) “
-- Neil Gaiman 07/23/02
“I agree that some kind of Emperor Norton memorial is in order. For myself, I shall either declare myself Emperor of America, issue my own money, or (more likely) have a long and interesting Emperor Norton Memorial Mug of Tea. I hope that there are people out there who can come up with better ideas than that.”
– Neil Gaiman 11/29/04
“Not yet unpacked the majority of the things people gave me on the tour, including the significant socks, (although I am enjoying the Calamansi juice). “
– Neil Gaiman 10/17/05
“I have great arguments with Scott [McCloud] about online comics, which tend to end up with him saying, "But by the time you get to panel 36 my first panel is now larger than the entire known universe, so you see I couldn't do it on paper!" and me going "But why do you want a panel larger than the known universe anyway?" but by that point in the conversation Scott has a strange light in his eyes and is starting to levitate and expound...
I can't imagine I'd ever do online comics for the sake of doing online comics. If ever I had an idea for a comic that would only work if it was online, and didn't involve characters falling for a very long way or panels larger than the known universe, and that wasn't a novelty act, I might well do it.
Lacking Scott, I don't go and read online comics for pleasure. I have too many piles of unread paper comics to read, and they make me feel guilty by being things that take up space on the floor in boxes. Online comics do not make me feel guilty. Yet.”
--Neil Gaiman 10/24/02
And here are three quotes that I would originally have posted under the Heading: "Gay-Man?" Because I, myself get more people either teasing ME or questioning ME on the pronunciation of my favorite author's name. So I thought it should be addressed, but surprisingly found very few references to it on the site. So they jumped in here.
“My cousin Adam Gaiman told me about listening to one of them* telling a comic shop in Newcastle everything he knew about me. Adam thought it was particularly hilarious, because none of it was even remotely true. At the point where the gentleman announced that it was common knowledge in the industry that "gaiman" was a pen name chosen to proclaim my sexual preferences to the world, Adam went over and showed him his bus pass, with his name on it."
–Neil Gaiman 08/20/03
*(RRNN -- The “Them” in this case refers to:)
“People who talk loudly in comic stores… the ones who hang around the front counter -- normally really irritating the staff, and getting in the way of the customers -- talking loudly about the secret world of comics. Because these guys know the secrets. And they tell everyone. That they know nothing is no impediment to them talking...”
--Neil Gaiman 08/20/03
“And the most frequently asked question is this:
’How do you pronounce your last name? Is it gay-man or guy-man or something else?’
It's Gaym'n.”
– Neil Gaiman, from the FAQ 09/27/01
“I… found myself agog at the fact that you said that you never have had a nickname… Your last name is Gaiman, translated as Gay-man!! Hint, hint. Assuming that this was your birthname, then I can't believe that you weren't hit with every scrap of homosexual innuendo and the connotations(?) that go with it. I'm from Australia and we always found excuses one way or the other to throw a nickname at someone, always in fun of course… What gives?”
-- Question sent in to Neil’s site by David Nelson.
“I suppose I was fortunate in having most of my schooldays before the mid-Seventies, then, or just in not having been to school in Australia...”
-- Neil Gaiman 01/03/06 (Answer to the above)
“Got up, did another TV interview, was fed lunch (Polish mountain trout, yum) by my Polish publisher, determined that I should never go without lunch in Poland ever again (the 6ths song "In the City in the Rain" playing in my head as we ate, as it has several times during this trip so far, although this was the only time I've eaten outside in the rain, under a giant umbrella), then waved goodbye to my new extended Polish family of publishers and translators and several children (not mine, theirs) in Warsaw airport, and headed off on a plane to Copenhagen.”
-- Neil Gaiman 05/11/03
“Look! …Embarrassing tour photos (I need to caption them, I suppose. Or I should get Jennifer Hershey, who took many of them, to caption them. This is Neil signing in Chicago. This is Neil looking dazed in Cleveland. This is Neil writing a blogger entry on the Libretto in a sushi place in... where was it? Argh. I don't remember. That is why Jennifer needs to caption them.)”
-- Neil Gaiman 11/07/01
“There is something about enthusiastic human stupidity that fascinates me. It looks like every credit card company responsible for every credit card in my wallet immediately went "He's trying to buy a TV in Poland? This is an odd and anomalous thing to do. We will deny it and put a block on the card," ...except, of course, for the credit card department of my local bank. My local bank went, "He's using his bank card as a credit card for the very first time, and buying thousands of dollars of electrical goods in Warsaw? Well, it's about time he started using that card." I heard that they seemed rather disappointed to learn that it wasn't actually me buying computers and TVs all over Warsaw (I suppose they thought it was just the kind of unusual thing that I might be counted on to do), and tomorrow my wife has to go in to the bank and fill out forms promising it wasn't me buying all those TVs.”
-- Neil Gaiman 05/11/03
“Sorry about not posting – life’s currently turned into a mad game of ping pong with me as the ball. Scribble scribble scribble type type type.”
-- Neil Gaiman 04/08/06
“A short post to say that, yes, we do know the FAQs are coming out black on black right now, and, no, we aren't just doing it because we thought it would look cool. This is not frustrating stylishness, as several of you seem to think; this is just a common-or-garden cock up.
But you can think it's style if you like...”
-- Neil Gaiman 10/05/01
“I had some brilliant idea of linking Foodporn and Bookslut as a sort of look! cool sites that sound like they're rude but aren't! thing, but I can't be bothered, so I shall just put in a plug for the Bookslut blogger, and the whole site.) “
-- Neil Gaiman 07/23/02
“I agree that some kind of Emperor Norton memorial is in order. For myself, I shall either declare myself Emperor of America, issue my own money, or (more likely) have a long and interesting Emperor Norton Memorial Mug of Tea. I hope that there are people out there who can come up with better ideas than that.”
– Neil Gaiman 11/29/04
“Not yet unpacked the majority of the things people gave me on the tour, including the significant socks, (although I am enjoying the Calamansi juice). “
– Neil Gaiman 10/17/05
“I have great arguments with Scott [McCloud] about online comics, which tend to end up with him saying, "But by the time you get to panel 36 my first panel is now larger than the entire known universe, so you see I couldn't do it on paper!" and me going "But why do you want a panel larger than the known universe anyway?" but by that point in the conversation Scott has a strange light in his eyes and is starting to levitate and expound...
I can't imagine I'd ever do online comics for the sake of doing online comics. If ever I had an idea for a comic that would only work if it was online, and didn't involve characters falling for a very long way or panels larger than the known universe, and that wasn't a novelty act, I might well do it.
Lacking Scott, I don't go and read online comics for pleasure. I have too many piles of unread paper comics to read, and they make me feel guilty by being things that take up space on the floor in boxes. Online comics do not make me feel guilty. Yet.”
--Neil Gaiman 10/24/02
And here are three quotes that I would originally have posted under the Heading: "Gay-Man?" Because I, myself get more people either teasing ME or questioning ME on the pronunciation of my favorite author's name. So I thought it should be addressed, but surprisingly found very few references to it on the site. So they jumped in here.
“My cousin Adam Gaiman told me about listening to one of them* telling a comic shop in Newcastle everything he knew about me. Adam thought it was particularly hilarious, because none of it was even remotely true. At the point where the gentleman announced that it was common knowledge in the industry that "gaiman" was a pen name chosen to proclaim my sexual preferences to the world, Adam went over and showed him his bus pass, with his name on it."
–Neil Gaiman 08/20/03
*(RRNN -- The “Them” in this case refers to:)
“People who talk loudly in comic stores… the ones who hang around the front counter -- normally really irritating the staff, and getting in the way of the customers -- talking loudly about the secret world of comics. Because these guys know the secrets. And they tell everyone. That they know nothing is no impediment to them talking...”
--Neil Gaiman 08/20/03
“And the most frequently asked question is this:
’How do you pronounce your last name? Is it gay-man or guy-man or something else?’
It's Gaym'n.”
– Neil Gaiman, from the FAQ 09/27/01
“I… found myself agog at the fact that you said that you never have had a nickname… Your last name is Gaiman, translated as Gay-man!! Hint, hint. Assuming that this was your birthname, then I can't believe that you weren't hit with every scrap of homosexual innuendo and the connotations(?) that go with it. I'm from Australia and we always found excuses one way or the other to throw a nickname at someone, always in fun of course… What gives?”
-- Question sent in to Neil’s site by David Nelson.
“I suppose I was fortunate in having most of my schooldays before the mid-Seventies, then, or just in not having been to school in Australia...”
-- Neil Gaiman 01/03/06 (Answer to the above)
posted by Really_Rather_Not_Nice at 5:55 AM
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