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
You know what my mum once said?’ said Rosie… ‘She said that if a just-married couple put a coin in a jar every time they make love in their first year, and take a coin out for every time that they make love in the years that follow, the jar will never be emptied.’ And this means…?’ Well’, she said. ‘It’s interesting, isn’t it?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the idea that the initial passion in a relationship can be unmatched, suggesting that over time, love may require effort to maintain.
In this quote, Rosie recalls her mother's wisdom about marriage, indicating that the first year of love is often filled with passion and intimacy, symbolized by the coins added to a jar. However, as time goes on, the frequency of intimacy may decline, represented by coins being taken out. This suggests that while the early stages of a relationship may be abundant in affection, sustaining love requires continued effort and investment.
Themes
LoveMarriageIntimacyRelationshipEffort
In practice
Example use cases
During a wedding speech to highlight the importance of nurturing love over time.
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
You are like a hurricane, there's calm in your eyes, and I'm getting blown away.
Neil YoungRead
At night, in the garden, it occurs to you that it might have been your heart that left you as you reached the capital. Your heart might not have travelled well, closed up in its cavity, quivering and gnawing at the bars of your ribcage during the commute. It might be tracking north now, along edgelands, past spoil-heaps and stands of pylons, under motorway passes, back to the higher ground. Back to him.
Sarah HallRead
Love can be angry... with a kind of anger in which there is no gall, like the dove's and not the ravens.
Saint AugustineRead
Does not all the blood within me_x000D_ _x000D_ Leap to meet thee, leap to meet thee,_x000D_ _x000D_ As the springs to meet the sunshine.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead
If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart. I'll stay there forever.
A. A. MilneRead
God loved us before he made us; and his love has never diminished and never shall.
Julian Of NorwichRead