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.
She had the feeling that the door was looking at her, which she knew was silly, and knew on a deeper level was somehow true.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the intersection of perception and reality, revealing how our emotions can shape our interpretation of the world.
In this quote by Neil Gaiman, the character expresses an awareness of the absurdity in feeling as if an inanimate object, a door, is observing her. This illustrates the idea that our emotions and subconscious can impart life and meaning to objects around us, leading to a deeper contemplation of how we connect with the world. It highlights the intricate relationship between our thoughts and our surroundings, suggesting that our perceptions may hold a truth beyond rational understanding.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the power of perception in art and literature.
More from Neil Gaiman
All quotes →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.
Similar quotes
When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.
You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that, oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was.
Evolution is a light illuminating all facts, a curve that all lines must follow.
The peril of this Nation is not in any foreign foe! We, the people, are its power, its peril, and its hope.
I is a great prison. It is your slavery and bondage to the mind. The moment you enter beyond the mind, you are - but you don`t have any notion of being an ego, of being an I. In other words: the more you think you are, the less you are; the more you experience that you are not... the more you are.
The past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for dying.