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
Gods, religions and national boundaries are absolutely imaginary. They don't tend to exist. As soon as you pull back half a mile and look down at the Earth there are no national boundaries. There aren't even national boundaries when you get down and walk around. They're just imaginary lines we draw on maps. I just get fascinated by people who assume that things that are imaginary have no relevance to their lives.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the arbitrary nature of societal constructs like religion and national boundaries, suggesting they are mere illusions.
Neil Gaiman highlights the idea that concepts such as gods, religions, and national borders are creations of human thought, and when viewed from a broader perspective, they lose their significance. These imaginary constructs can influence people's lives significantly, despite being fundamentally superficial. Gaiman points out the irony of individuals who cling to these illusions and take them as absolute truths in their lives.
Themes
ImaginaryBoundariesSocietyIllusionPerspective
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about global unity and the artificial nature of borders.
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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.
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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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