When we consider that each of us has only one life to live, isnโt it rather tragic to find men and women, with brains capable of comprehending the stars and the planets, talking about the weather; men and women, with hands capable of creating works of art, using those hands only for routine tasks; men and women, capable of independent thought, using their minds as a bowling-alley for popular ideas; men and women, capable of greatness, wallowing in mediocrity; men and women, capable of self-expression, slowly dying a mental death while they babble the confused monotone of the mob?
Neil GaimanNow me,โ said Mr. Vandemar. โWhat number am I thinking of?โ โI beg your pardon?โ โWhat number am I thinking of?โ repeated Mr. Vandemar. โItโs between one and a lot,โ he added, helpfully.
Neil GaimanMy wife, Amanda, is terribly good at warping reality. She is like a bowling ball on a rubber sheet, and you find yourself living in her universe, doing things that are completely unexpected or unimaginable for you, but you blink and you're up on a stage singing, or wearing a peculiar wig, or writing a book filled with feelings and emotion, or doing something equally as unlikely.
Neil GaimanThe main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, youโre allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But itโs definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. Iโm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.
Neil Gaiman