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
She was beautiful, but she was beautiful in the way a forest fire was beautiful.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that beauty can be fierce and destructive, much like a forest fire.
Neil Gaiman's quote emphasizes a type of beauty that is wild, powerful, and potentially dangerous. It draws a parallel between conventional beauty and the awe-inspiring yet fearsome beauty of a forest fire, suggesting that beauty can evoke complex emotions, including both admiration and caution.
Themes
BeautyNatureForest FireNeil GaimanWild
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about unconventional beauty, one could reference this quote to highlight the complexity of attractive but dangerous qualities.
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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.
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The river and the garden have been the foundations of my economy here. Of the two I have liked the river best. It is wonderful to have the duty of being on the river the first and last thing every day. I have loved it even in the rain. Sometimes I have loved it most in the rain.
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