NEIL GAIMAN
“ fe r a l ch i l d w h o wa s raised in libraries” “I wouldn't be who I am without libraries”
L i t e r a r y I n fl u e n c e s
Au t h o r w h o s e wo r k c r o s s e s ge n r e s a n d r e a ch e s a u d i e n c e s o f a l l a ge s
Beneath the everyday, below the skin of the humdrum, is a dark otherworld, and ordinary people – lost, lonely people – can find their way there if they are very brave or very lucky.
“ F i c t i o n i s t h e l i e t h a t t e l l s t h e t r u t h . We h a v e an obligation not to bore our readers, but to make them need to turn the pages. One of the b e s t c u r e s f o r a r e l u c t a n t r e a d e r, a f t e r a l l , i s a tale they cannot stop themselves from reading.�
“F iction can show you a dif ferent world. It can take you somewhere you’ve never been. Once you’ve visited other worlds, you can never be entirely content with the world that you g rew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, l e a v e t h e m b e t t e r, l e a v e t h e m d i f f e r e n t . Yo u ’ r e a l s o fi n d i n g o u t s o m e t h i n g a s y o u r e a d , v i t a l l y impor tant for making your way in the world. And it’s this: T h e w o r l d d o e s n ’ t h ave t o b e l i ke t h i s . T h i n g s can be dif ferent.”
The idea behind Coraline can be found in the quotation by C.K. Chesterton that precedes the beginning of the story: "Fair y tales are more than tr ue: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.�