#neil gaiman quotes

[noblogname765]

Neil’s quotes from 2019, back when S1 was released. 🤍 I so can’t wait for S2!

[sighed-the-snake]

I just came across this quote from Neil Gaiman from San Diego Comic-Con 2018:

"I think it was Terry who pointed out to me that people think funny and serious are opposites and they're not. The opposite of funny is not funny. You can be absolutely serious while being funny and that's how Good Omens honors Terry's legacy."

That is something I have always loved about Terry Pratchett's novels. He could make the most improbable and silly jokes and then make them a literal reality within his stories, and he'd do it in a way that made you think about the world we live in.

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Good Omens, staying skeptical, and the mystery and the lie at the heart of Gravity Falls

-Neil Gaiman, 29 June 2023

I recently came across this post by @apathetic-revenant, which goes into extensive detail about a whole secret meta lie generated by Alex Hirsch, creator and head writer of Gravity Falls, midway through the show.

It went like this: the show was very focused on mysteries, codes, ciphers, etc, and early on a character discovered a mysterious journal with an unknown author, and this drove the plot. There were clues placed in the show so that people could solve the journal author's identity, or more probably so that it would all make sense in hindsight after the big reveal. However, the show ended up with a larger-than-expected fandom who started organizing online in a way the creators hadn't expected or planned for, and they were worried everyone would collectively solve the mystery too easily, too soon, and the suspense and appeal of the story gradually unfolding would be lost.

So they took a fake BTS photo that appeared to reveal the journal's author and "leaked" it online. To give it credibility, the show's creator posted "Fuming right now" and then deleted the post soon after, once they were certain it had been seen and screenshots taken. The Gravity Falls fandom then stopped trying to solve the mystery, as they believed the answer had already been revealed. It was a solution "targeted toward delaying that group problem-solving, without actually affecting the experience of any individual person watching the show."

Ok, Good Omens fandom. Are we Gravity Falls all over again? Are we also experiencing meta lies?

Is it possible that Amazon's marketing department has just released a new promotional video about Aziraphale & Crowley's "timeline of interconnectedness" (discussions here and here ) where they honestly:

got several of those timeline dates wrong, including labeling the entirety of seasons 1 and 2 as belonging to the same year?

mixed all the season 1 and 2 clips together so they're completely interconnected and out of the order they were presented to us so far?

didn't consult with Neil Gaiman for even a moment to be sure they had their facts straight? (Or literally anyone else who's spent years working on it? Or even someone who has just watched it once while paying attention?)

didn't understand the way most series tell a story by moving through time in a realistic linear fashion?

When Neil said today that "time is fine" in response to questions about the timeline of interconnectedness video, was he trying to misdirect the fandom away from the mystery that's clearly hidden throughout both seasons (and especially season 2)?

The Good Place seems suddenly more relevant than I'd imagined:

Neil has told us that his Tumblr posts aren't canon. He's also said:

"Never trust the storyteller. Only trust the story."

"Writers are liars, my dear, surely you know that by now? And yet, things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot." -Both quotes are from The Sandman [link]

So here's my plea to whichever part of the fandom might read this: Stay Skeptical. It's wonderful to talk to Neil about his characters, the worlds he's created, his writing process, his views on world events, his sense of humor, his kindness, his compassion and empathy, and his good advice & encouragement for the entire range of the human experience. I respect him very much, and I'm thrilled he's here on social media talking to all of us. (Except he doesn't have social media, obviously. He's like Schrödinger's Social Media Neil-cat.)

I'm looking forward to all the surprises I'm certain are in store for us (and Aziraphale and Crowley) in Good Omens season 3. I trust Neil (and Terry!) to deliver our beloved characters to a very satisfying ending. But I don't trust Neil to honestly answer all of our questions on social media - and neither should you.

Especially not when he's already blamed obvious season 2 changes to the Bentley on the "lighting" (as just one example).

With lots of thanks to the members of the @ineffable-detective-agency - including @bbbitchvibbbez, @kimberleyjean, @maufungi, @noneorother, @theastrophysicistnextdoor, and @thebluestgreen for all their excellent fact-checking, ideas, and discussions!

Interested in diving further into all the Good Omens mysteries? I have more posts plus Clues and metas from all over the fandom, here.

[weird-little-book-lover]

[intrikatie]

I really don't know what "I love you" means. I think it means "Don't leave me here alone."

Neil Gaiman

[whilereadingandwalking]

“Coraline shivered. She preferred her other mother to have a location: if she were nowhere, then she could be anywhere. And, after all, it is always easier to be afraid of something you cannot see.”

—Coraline by Neil Gaiman

[dark-sky-official]

Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.

-Neil Gaiman

From: The Sandman

[demonandhisangel]

"The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can."

- Neil Gaiman

[if-not-now-tell-me-when]

I listened to Neil Gaiman's Masterclass again while cleaning my apartment. And something struck me that didn't stick out to me before. That the most important thing about your writing, is that you care about it. You care, and by caring about it, you make other people care. You care enough to make other people feel something through your writing.

And I think that also is just great life advice. What matters most of all, more than anything else, is that you care. In the end, nothing else is important. Even if things don't turn out the way you wanted, even if things turn out in tragedy, even if you try your best but random, unforeseeable events happen to you anyway. You try your best, and maybe things are just going to happen to you anyway, but what matters is that you cared. What matters is that the love was there.

[captainoftheussthagomizer]

“‘Good afternoon,’ said the cat.

Its voice sounded like the voice in the back of Coraline’s head, the voice she thought words in, but a man’s voice, not a girl’s.”

-Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Chapter IV

[foundinthevoid]

A philosopher once asked, "Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?" Pointless, really..."Do the stars gaze back?" Now, that's a question. (Stardust)

[serenityscribes]

Made a new facebook banner out of one of my favourite quotes from my favourite Neil Gaiman book. 

Image credit goes to the free image I found on Adobe Stock. 

[emisrequiem]

"I'm not sure that there are bad people. I think there are definitely people who do or are doing or have done bad things. If you conclude you are one of those people, then stop doing bad things." @neil-gaiman

[dinokeks]

[weird-little-book-lover]

Best Neil Gaiman quote ever

[noblogname765]

I fully trust Neil’s storytelling because we all know everything will lead to this -

You remember how I told everyone the plot of Season 2 before it aired?

(Everyone tries to remember and then shakes their heads.)

That's right. I didn't. I spent several years going "wait and see". And you waited and you saw.

I'm not going to reveal any of the plot of Season 3, either. So there's really no point in asking me to make things happen, or to tell me what you do or you don't want to happen. I'm not going to.