And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.
Neil Gaiman
- Born
- 1960
- Occupations
- beekeeper, comics writer, novelist
- Notable works
- The Sandman, American Gods, Stardust
Facts: Wikidata (CC0), as of 2026-07-09
I decided that I would do my best in future not to write books just for the money. If you didn’t get the money, then you didn’t have anything. If I did work I was proud of, and I didn’t get the money, at least I’d have the work.
Neil Gaiman
If you don’t know it’s impossible it’s easier to do. And because nobody’s done it before, they haven’t made up rules to stop anyone doing that again, yet.
Neil Gaiman
If you have an idea of what you want to make, what you were put here to do, then just go and do that.
Neil Gaiman
I learned to write by writing. I tended to do anything as long as it felt like an adventure, and to stop when it felt like work, which meant that life did not feel like work.
Neil Gaiman
Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do.
Neil Gaiman
New messages: END IT ALL was one of them. PUT YOURSELF OUT OF YOUR MISERY. BE A MAN – DO YOURSELF IN. HAVE A FATAL ACCIDENT TODAY.
Neil Gaiman
“No wonder Atlantis sank,” muttered Richard. “If they all felt like this in the morning it was probably a relief.”
Neil Gaiman
Richard had noticed that events were cowards: they didn’t occur singly, but instead they would run in packs and leap out at him all at once.
Neil Gaiman
"Rubbish!" screamed a fat, elderly woman, in Richard's ear, as he passed her malodorous stall. "Junk!" she continued. "Garbage! Trash! Offal! Debris! Come and get it! Nothing whole or undamaged! Crap, tripe and useless piles of shit. You know you want it."
Neil Gaiman
Rubbish! screamed a fat, elderly woman, in Richard's ear, as he passed her malodorous stall. "Junk!" she continued. "Garbage! Trash! Offal! Debris! Come and get it! Nothing whole or undamaged! Crap, tripe and useless piles of shit. You know you want it."
Neil Gaiman
So be wise, because the world needs more wisdom, and if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would.
Neil Gaiman
Something that worked for me was imagining that where I wanted to be – an author, primarily of fiction, making good books, making good comics and supporting myself through my words – was a mountain. A distant mountain. My goal.
Neil Gaiman
The first problem of any kind of even limited success is the unshakable conviction that you are getting away with something, and that any moment now they will discover you.
Neil Gaiman