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
Sometimes I suspect that we build our traps ourselves, then we back into them, pretending amazement the while.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We often create our own problems and then act surprised by their consequences.
This quote by Neil Gaiman reflects on the idea that individuals can be complicit in their own misfortunes. It suggests that we may unconsciously construct challenges or limitations for ourselves, only to later feign innocence or surprise when they manifest, highlighting a disconnect between our actions and their repercussions.
Themes
TrapsSelfResponsibilitySurpriseConsequences
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about personal accountability.
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.
Neil GaimanRead
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.
Neil GaimanRead
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.
Neil GaimanRead
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.
Neil GaimanRead
Similar quotes
Gide and I have attained such perfect intellectual communion that I experience the appropriate labor pains for every thought he gives birth to!
Susan SontagRead
In a crowd, on a journey, at a banquet even, a line of thought can itself provide its own seclusion.
QuintilianRead
While optimism makes us live as if someday soon things will soon go better for us, hope frees us from the need to predict the future and allows us to live in the present, with the deep trust that God will never leave us alone but will fulfill the deepest desires of our heart... Joy in this perspective is the fruit of hope.
Henri NouwenRead
The weak are always anxious for justice and equality. The strong pay no heed to either.
AristotleRead
I have the feeling of this completely alternative person I should have become. There was another life that I might have had, but I’m having this one.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
Where I am, I don't know, I'll never know, in the silence you don't know, you must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on.
Samuel BeckettRead