A short story is the ultimate close-up magic trick -- a couple of thousand words to take you around the universe or break your heart.
Neil GaimanRead
Adventures are all very well in their place, but there's a lot to be said for regular meals and freedom from pain.
Interpretation
What this quote means
While adventures are valuable, the importance of stability and well-being should not be overlooked.
In this quote, Neil Gaiman highlights the contrast between the excitement of adventures and the everyday comforts and necessities of life, such as regular meals and relief from suffering. He suggests that while pursuing adventures can be fulfilling, a stable and secure life offers its own significant benefits that should not be taken for granted.
Themes
AdventureLifeStabilityComfortWell-Being
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about finding balance in life, one might quote this to emphasize the value of security alongside adventure.
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As a teenager I wrote to R.A. Lafferty. And he responded, too, with letters that were like R.A. Lafferty short stories, filled with elliptical answers to straight questions and simple answers to complicated ones.
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The important thing to understand about American history, wrote Mr. Ibis, in his leather-bound journal, is that it is fictional, a charcoal-sketched simplicity for the children, or the easily bored.
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Nothing’s changed. You’ll go home. You’ll be bored. You’ll be ignored. No one will listen to you, really listen to you. You’re too clever and too quiet for them to understand. They don’t even get your name right.
Neil GaimanRead
I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here, I can pretend...I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come, and gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can pretend.
Neil GaimanRead
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