The Quotable Sandman

I wish I could claim these words as my own...

Things need not have happened to be true.
Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths
that will endure when mere facts
are dust and ashes,
and forgot.
- Dream

Sometimes we can choose
the path we follow.
Sometimes our choices
are made for us.
And sometimes we have
no choice at all.
-Dream

Destinations
are often
a surprise
to the
destined.
-Thessaly

Is there any person in the world
who does not dream?
Who does not contain within them
worlds unimagined?
-Narrator

It is a fool's prerogative
to utter truths
that no one else will utter.
-Dream

Little one, I would like to
see anyone - prophet,
king or god -
persuade a thousand
cats to do anything
at the same time.
-Orange Cat

Our existence deforms the universe.
That's responsibility.
-Delirium

We do what we do because of who
we are. If we did otherwise, we
would not be ourselves.
-Dream

When the first living thing existed,
I was there waiting.
When the last living thing dies,
my job will be finished.
I'll put the chairs on the tables,
turn out the lights,
and lock the universe
behind me as I leave.
-Death

Our sister (Death) defines life,
just as Despair defines hope,
or Desire defines hatred,
or as Destiny defines freedom.
-Destruction

Never a possession, always the possessor, with
skin as pale as smoke, and eyes tawny and
sharp as yellow wine:
Desire is everything you've ever wanted.
Whoever you are. Whatever you are.
Everything
-Narrator

You got what anybody gets,
Bernie,
You got a lifetime.
-Death

Have you ever been in love?
Horrible, isn't it?
It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest
and it opens your heart and it means someone can
get inside of you and mess you up. You build up all
these defenses. You build up this whole armor, for
years, so nothing can hurt you, then one stupid
person, nodifferent from any other stupid person,
wanders into your stupid life... You give them a piece of
you. They don't ask for it. They do something dumb
one day like kiss you, or smile at you, and your life
isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets
inside of you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in
the darkness, so a simple phrase like "Maybe we
should just be friends" or "How perceptive" turns
into a glass splinter working its way into your heart.
It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in
the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-
inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. Nothing should
be able to do that. Especially not love.
I hate love.
-Rose Walker

Love belongs
to Desire.
And Desire
is always
cruel.
-Old Man

Only the phoenix arises and
does not change.
And everything changes. And
nothing is truly lost.
-Narrator

That which is dreamed
can never be lost,
can never be undreamed.
-Master Li

I know how gods begin, Roger.
We start as dreams. Then we
walk out of the dreams into the
land. We are worshipped and
loved, and take power to our-
selves. And then one day there's
no one left to worship us. And in
the end, each little god and god-
dess takes its last journey back
into dreams, and what comes
after, not even we know.
-Ishtar

I like in-betweens.
-Delirium

This is why Neil Gaiman is my favorite author, he inserts the truth through his fantisized characters so that it may be heard by the masses that are his fans.