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
Reading is important. Books are important. Librarians are important. (Also, libraries are not child-care facilities, but sometimes feral children raise themselves among the stacks.)
Interpretation
What this quote means
Reading and literature are essential for growth and development, while libraries serve a unique role in fostering knowledge rather than merely being spaces for supervision.
In this quote, Neil Gaiman emphasizes the significance of reading and books in personal and intellectual development, highlighting the crucial role that librarians play in guiding individuals through literature. He also subtly remarks on the environment of libraries, contrasting the ideal purpose of these institutions with the chaotic reality that sometimes unfolds within them, as children may find solace and freedom among books while navigating their own self-discovery.
Themes
ReadingBooksLibrariesEducationKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the importance of literacy, this quote can highlight the value of reading.
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.
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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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