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
He was alone in the darkness once more, but the darkness became brighter and brighter until it was burning like the sun.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the idea that solitude and darkness can lead to a transformative inner light or understanding.
In this quote by Neil Gaiman, the speaker experiences a profound moment of solitude that initially feels dark and isolating. However, as time passes, this darkness transforms into a brighter illumination, symbolizing personal growth, enlightenment, and the realization that even in our loneliest moments, there is potential for clarity and insight that can be as powerful as the sun. It suggests that darkness can lead to awakening and profound understanding.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming hardships.
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.
Jesus. Low-Key Lyesmith," said Shadow. and then he heard what he was saying and he understood. "Loki," he said. "Loki Lie-smith." "You're slow," said Loki, "but you get there in the end." And his lips twisted into a scarred smile and the embers danced in the shadows of his eyes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You know, of course, that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.
God’s sovereign will is not at the whim and mercy of our person and individual responses to it.
The native American has been generally despised by his white conquerors for his poverty and simplicity. They forget, perhaps, that his religion forbade the accumulation of wealth and the enjoyment of luxury... Furthermore, it was the rule of his life to share the fruits of his skill and success with his less fortunate brothers. Thus he kept his spirit free from the clog of pride, cupidity, or envy, and carried out, as he believed, the divine decree-a matter profoundly important to him.
The center that I cannot find is known to my unconscious mind.
I was a man of the earth, precisely as I had dreamed I would be.
Liberty, as it is conceived by current opinion, has nothing inherent about it; it is a sort of gift or trust bestowed on the individual by the state pending good behavior.
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