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
My parents would frisk me before family events. Before weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs, and what have you. Because if they didn't, then the book would be hidden inside some pocket or other and as soon as whatever it was got under way I'd be found in a corner. That was who I was...that was what I did. I was the kid with the book.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the author's deep connection to reading, highlighting how it defined his identity even in family settings.
In this quote, Neil Gaiman reminisces about his childhood and the way his love for books was so strong that it influenced his behavior at family gatherings. He describes how his parents took precautions to ensure he wouldn’t be distracted by his books during significant family events, illustrating the depth of his passion for reading and how it was an intrinsic part of his identity.
Themes
BooksFamilyChildhoodIdentityReading
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of reading in childhood, you might quote Gaiman to emphasize the significance of nurturing a child's love for books.
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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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