a dreamer's wisdom - gaiman's 2013 new year's wish

In the world to come, let us be brave – let us walk into the dark
without fear, and step into the unknown with smiles on our faces,
even if we're faking them.  And whatever happens to us,
whatever we make, whatever we learn, let us take joy in it. We
can find joy in the world if it's joy we're looking for, we can take
joy in the act of creation.  So that is my wish for you, and for me.
Bravery and joy.

- Neil Gaiman

By Henry Justice Ford

a dreamer's wisdom

Each person who ever was or is or will be has a song. It isn't a
song that anybody else wrote. It has its own melody, it has its own
words. Very few people get to sing their song. Most of us fear that
we cannot do it justice with our voices, or that our words are too
foolish or too honest, or too odd. So people live their song instead.

- Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys

By Karl Wennergren

the well written - neil gaiman & terry pratchett

The cafe door opened. A young man in dusty white leathers
entered, and the wind blew in empty crisp packets and newspapers
and ice cream wrappers in with him. They danced around his feet
like excited children, then fell exhausted to the floor.

- Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Good Omens

By Hillary Kleptach

photo stories - gregory crewdson

Ultimately, I’m interested in this ambiguous moment that draws the viewer
in through photographic beauty, through repulsion, through some kind of
tension.  I have always been fascinated by the poetic condition of twilight.
By its transformative quality. Its power of turning the ordinary into something
magical and otherworldly. My wish is for the narrative in the pictures to work
within that circumstance. It is that sense of in-between-ness that interests me.   

– Gregory Crewdson

Many writers also manage to strike this balance between beauty and repulsion.
Valente and Angela Carter strike me as two great examples.  See here:

They fell on me, which is pretty much how zombies do anything...  But they 
didn't bite me, and finally my father threw back his head and bellowed. I know 
that bellow. I've always known it, and it hasn't changed. They pulled away, panting, 
exhausted... And my father limped over to me, dragging his broken left foot-they 
don't die but they don't heal. I tried to set it once and that was the closest I ever 
came to getting bitten before that night on the river.

He stood over me, his eyebrows crusted with old fluid, his eyes streaming tears 
like ink, his jaw dislocated and hanging, his cheeks puffed out with infection. He 
reached out and hooted gently like an ape. To anyone else it would have been just 
another animal noise from a rotting zombie, but I heard it as clear as anything: 
Caitlin, Caitlin, Caitlin. I had nowhere to go, and he reached for me, brushing my 
hair out of my face. With one bloody thumb he traced a circle onto my forehead, 
like a priest on Ash Wednesday. Caitlin, Caitlin, Caitlin.

His blood was cold. 

- Catherynne M. Valente, " The Days of Flaming Motorcycles" 

And a great example from Carter can be found here.

on writing - neil gaiman

 Neil Gaiman's writing advice via Brain Pickings:

1. Write

2. Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.

3. Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.

4. Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to
friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.

5. Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for
them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they
think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

6. Fix it. 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.

7. Laugh at your own jokes.

8. The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and
confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for
life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your
story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. 
I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

By Stacey Jane

the well written - neil gaiman

Speaking of fairy tales, Gaiman did an amazing re-telling of the Snow
White fairy tale called Snow, Glass, Apples.  Absolutely amazing. 
And inspiring.  You can read it here.

By Julie Dillon