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
We make choices. No one else can live our lives for us. And we must confront and accept the consequences of our actions.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes individual responsibility in making choices and facing their consequences.
Neil Gaiman's quote reminds us that each person is accountable for their own life decisions. It underscores the importance of personal agency, asserting that we have the power to make choices that define our lives, and that we must also be prepared to face the outcomes of those choices, whether positive or negative.
Themes
ChoicesConsequencesResponsibilityAgencyLife
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech to inspire students about their future.
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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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