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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fear often stems from the unknown, as it's easier to be afraid of what we cannot see.
In this quote, Neil Gaiman highlights the concept of fear and how it is rooted in the unknown. The character Coraline feels a sense of fear when confronted with the idea of her other mother being 'nowhere,' suggesting that fear is often more profound when it relates to uncertainty and invisibility. It illustrates the human tendency to project fear onto what is not visible or defined, emphasizing the psychological impact of the unknown in our lives.
Themes
FearUnknownInvisibilityPsychologyCourage
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about overcoming fears, this quote can illustrate how our fears often relate to the unknown.
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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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