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
Growing up, I took so many cues from books. They taught me most of what I knew about what people did, about how to behave. They were my teachers and my advisers.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Books play a vital role in shaping our understanding of behavior and culture.
In this quote, Neil Gaiman reflects on the significant influence that books have had on his development as a person. He conveys that literature served as a crucial source of guidance, providing insights into how people act and interact, effectively acting as teachers and mentors in his life. This highlights the importance of reading and the profound impact that stories and information can have on shaping one’s worldview and behavior.
Themes
BooksLearningInfluenceBehaviorDevelopment
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of education, one might say, 'As Neil Gaiman noted, growing up with books shaped my understanding of the world.'
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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.
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.
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