Quotes from Sandman *spoilers*

MarianCallMarianCall
edited February 2014 in Sandman Book Club
There might be spoilers in here. I just wanted to list quotes from the book, and from interviews about the book, that are amazing incredible so I can find them again. Unless mentioned otherwise, all written by Neil Gaiman.

"What power would hell have if those imprisoned here were not able to dream of heaven?" - Morpheus in Vol. I

Comments

  • AK_BeckyAK_Becky
    This is kind of long, but I love this whole section. Vol. 1, Dream, as he contemplates Death: 

    "I find myself wondering about humanity. Their attitude to my sister's gift is so strange. Why do they fear the sunless lands? It is as natural to die as it is to be born. But they fear her. Dread her. Feebly they attempt to placate her. They do not love her. Many thousands of years ago I heard a song in a dream, a mortal song that celebrated her gift. I still remember it. 

    "Death is before me today:
    Like the recovery of a sick man, 
    Like going forth into a garden after sickness.

    Death is before me today:
    Like the odor of myrrh,
    Like sitting under a sail
    in a good wind.

    Death is before me today:
    Like the course of a stream,
    Like the return of a man 
    from the war-galley to his house.

    Death is before me today:
    Like the home that a man longs to see,
    After years spent as a captive."

  • MarianCallMarianCall
    Oh, thank you, I've been meaning to transcribe that here and just haven't found the time! You read my mind!
  • AK_BeckyAK_Becky
    Ha! I really want to "like" the fact that we thought of the same quote. (Damn you, Facebook!) 
    Two quotes from volume II. First, the Nada story: 

    "And at this Nada was deathly afraid, for though she loved him, she knew this was not meant to be, and she could not countenance his destruction, and hers. For love is no part of the dream-world. Love belongs to desire, and desire is always cruel." (Note: with the font, I can't tell if Desire should be capitalized or not. Either way, really...)

    Second one is from Chantal's dreams in the Vortex: 

    "Chantal is having a relationship with a sentence. Just one of those things. A chance meeting that grew into something important for both of them. They like the same things. She took it to a party. They were a big hit, the perfect couple. Everybody knows about her and the sentence. The sentence spent most of last year in Czechoslovakian for political reasons, but it was recently translated back into English. In order to stop the sentence being deported, Chantal has arranged to have it read into the Library of Congress. However - when the time comes she discovers that she can no longer read. She has no idea what her sentence is about. Despondent and joyless, Chantal begins to cry."
  • autographedcatautographedcat
    "I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing."
    (The Kindly Ones)

    "Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly."
    (Fables and Reflections)

    "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 Country)

    "You get what anybody gets - you get a lifetime."
    (Preludes and Nocturnes)



  • SvithrirSvithrir
    In spoiler white: The last stanza of that song, oh the foreshadowing!!
  • DanielDaniel
    "Would you like to kick them, Miss, er.....?"  "mmm, No. No Thank you. These are nice shoes."  (Doll's House, Part 2)
  • Joi_the_ArtistJoi_the_Artist
    "What a wonderful place!" 
    "Yeah, it was a friend of mine."
  • Joi_the_ArtistJoi_the_Artist
    "I would like to see anyone--prophet, king, or god--persuade a thousand cats to do anything at the same time." Dream of a Thousand Cats
  • Joi_the_ArtistJoi_the_Artist
    "The price of getting what you want, is getting what once you wanted." Morpheus, "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
  • SusSus
    Just finished P&N, racing to catch up. Found 2 of my favourite quotes in there (I thought they were in Vol4!), so I thought I'd share them here:

    "I have hope. And I stand here, alone and afraid, in the Naked Space at the gates of hell." (Morpheus) - Tears everywhere. Every time.

    "Then let us summon all of them to tell, and meet them on the vasty plains of hell!" (Lucifer Morningstar)
  • MarianCallMarianCall
    I love this.  Thanks for your posts, guys.  From Vol. II:

    "Remember this.  We of the endless are the servants of the living -- we are NOT their masters.  WE exist because they know, deep in their hearts, that we exist.  When the last living thing has left this universe, then our task will be done.  And we do not manipulate them.  If anything, they manipulate us."

    Rose: "Do you know hwat Freud said about dreams of flying?  It means you're really dreaming about having sex."
    Dream: "Indeed. Tell me then, what does it mean when you dream about having sex?"

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