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
Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Perfection is unattainable, and it's important to move forward regardless.
In this quote, Neil Gaiman emphasizes that striving for perfection can become an endless pursuit, likened to chasing the horizon. He suggests that instead of becoming fixated on making something flawless, one should recognize the need to let go of their current project and shift focus to new endeavors, indicating that progress and creativity necessitate movement and evolution.
Themes
PerfectionMovementCreativityProgressLet Go
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, to encourage participants to finish their stories, I might say, 'Remember what Neil Gaiman said about perfection; it's essential to keep moving forward.'
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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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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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