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
If you want to call it that. But it is a very specific sort of magic. There's a magic you take from death. Something leaves the world, something else comes into it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the transformative nature of death, suggesting that it brings about a unique kind of magic through change.
In this quote, Neil Gaiman addresses the concept of death as a catalyst for change and transformation. He implies that while death is often viewed negatively, it holds a specific kind of magic in that it creates space for new beginnings and different experiences. This alteration emphasizes the interconnectedness of life and death and how one inevitably leads to the other, fostering growth and renewal in the world.
Themes
DeathTransformationChangeMagicRenewal
In practice
Example use cases
In a eulogy, one might say this quote to highlight the beauty that can arise from loss.
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
wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers, for the sleepers in that quiet earth.
Emily BronteRead
Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbor, does not yet understand them as he ought.
Saint AugustineRead
The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
Perhaps all our troubles - all the violence, obesity, illness, depression, and greed we can't overcome - began when we stopped living as Running People. Deny your nature, and it will erupt in some other, uglier way.
Christopher McdougallRead
That man has missed something who has never left a brothel at sunrise feeling like throwing himself into the river out of pure disgust.
Gustave FlaubertRead
If some books are deemed most baneful and their sale forbid, how then with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting men? Those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. Events, not books should be forbid.
Herman MelvilleRead