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You Get What Anybody Gets - You Get A Lifetime.
-Neil Gaiman
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You Get What Anybody

Neil Gaiman
...
You Get What Anybody Gets - You Get A Lifetime.

Understanding the Quote: "you get what anybody gets - you get a lifetime...."

This quote by Neil Gaiman reflects deeply on the theme of life. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Life, Inspirational Life, Lifetime, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Neil Gaiman interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is celebrated for insightful thoughts on life and inspirational life. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 31000
Topic
Life
Inspirational Life
Lifetime
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Moments
I’m An Author. We Don’t Want To Lead. We Don’t Need To Follow. We Stay Home And Make Stuff Up And Write It Down And Send It Out Into The World, And Get Inside People’s Heads. Perhaps We Change The World And Perhaps We Don’t. We Never Know. We Just Make Stuff Up.
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Classic
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Lying
Fiction
Telling The Truth
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Long
Kingdoms
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Dream
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Hands
Knives
Darkness
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Life
Mind
I Don't Know If Any Single Book Made Me Want To Write. C.s. Lewis Was The First Writer To Make Me Aware That Somebody Was Writing The Book I Was Reading - These Wonderful Parenthetical Asides To The Reader.
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Reading
Writing
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Father
Lying
Of Course You Don't Believe In Fairies. You're Fifteen. You Think I Believed In Fairies At Fifteen? Took Me Until I Was At Least A Hundred And Forty. Hundred And Fifty, Maybe. Anyway, He Wasn't A Fairy. He Was A Librarian. All Right?
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Thinking
Fifteen
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Broken Heart
Heartbreak
When You Say Words A Lot They Don't Mean Anything. Or Maybe They Don't Mean Anything Anyway, And We Just Think They Do.
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Thinking
Sandman
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Writing
Stories
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Simple
Stories
Being A Writer Is A Very Peculiar Sort Of A Job: It's Always You Versus A Blank Sheet Of Paper (or A Blank Screen) And Quite Often The Blank Piece Of Paper Wins.
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Writing
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But Libraries Are About Freedom. Freedom To Read, Freedom Of Ideas, Freedom Of Communication. They Are About Education (which Is Not A Process That Finishes The Day We Leave School Or University), About Entertainment, About Making Safe Spaces, And About Access To Information.
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School
Ideas
You're A Big One,[...] A Tall Drink Of Water, But I Got To Tell You, You Don't Look Too Bright. I Got A Son, Stupid As A Man Who Bought His Stupid At A Two-for-one Sale, And You Remind Me Of Him.
Stupid
Son
Men
And I Would Try And Walk Far Enough Away That People Would Not Assume I Was With Him.
People
Trying
Assuming
Notoriety Wasn't As Good As Fame, But Was Heaps Better Than Obscurity.
Obscurity
Fame
Notoriety
I Wanted To Write Something That Would Be A Comedy In The Sense Of Making People Feel Happier When They Finish It Than They Did When Began It.
Writing
People
Would Be
There Is Something About Riding A Unicorn, For Those People Who Still Can, Which Is Unlike Any Other Experience: Exhilarating, And Intoxicating, And Fine.
People
Riding
Unicorn
I Think . . . I Said Things To Silas. He'll Be Angry.' 'if He Didn't Care About You, You Couldn't Upset Him,' Was All She Said.
Thinking
Upset
Care
It Has Always Been The Prerogative Of Children And Half-wits To Point Out That The Emperor Has No Clothes. But The Half-wit Remains A Half-wit, And The Emperor Remains An Emperor.
Children
Clothes
Half
The Best Way To Show People True Things Is From A Direction That They Had Not Imagined The Truth Coming.
People
Way
Shows
One Word After Another. That's The Only Way That Novels Get Written And, Short Of Elves Coming In The Night And Turning Your Jumbled Notes Into Chapter Nine, It's The Only Way To Do It. So Keep On Keeping On. Write Another Word And Then Another.
Writing
Night
Nine
To Be Despair. It Is A Portrait. Only Close Your Eyes And Feel.
Eye
Despair
Portraits
Behind The Curtain's Mystic Fold The Glowing Future Lies Unrolled.
Lying
Future
Glowing
Coraline Opened The Box Of Chocolates. The Dog Looked At Them Longingly. "would You Like One?" She Asked The Little Dog. "yes, Please," Whispered The Dog. "only Not Toffee Ones. They Make Me Drool." "i Thought Chocolates Weren't Very Good For Dogs," She Said, Remembering Something Miss Forcible Had Once Told Her. "maybe Where You Come From," Whispered The Little Dog. "here, It's All We Eat.
Dog
Missing
Chocolate
Be Hole, Be Dust, Be Dream, Be Wind/be Night, Be Dark, Be Wish, Be Mind,/now Slip, Now Slide, Now Move Unseen,/above, Beneath, Betwixt, Between.
Dream
Moving
Dark
He Had Noticed That Events Were Cowards: They Didn't Occur Singly, But Instead They Would Run In Packs And Leap Out At Him All At Once.
Running
Coward
Events
For Some Folks Death Is Release, And For Others Death Is An Abomination, A Terrible Thing. But In The End, I'm There For All Of Them.
Sandman
Release
Ends
Nice' In A Bodyguard Is About As Useful As The Ability To Regurgitate Whole Lobsters.
Nice
Lobster
Ability
Make Glorious, Amazing Mistakes. Make Mistakes Nobody's Ever Made Before. Whatever You're Scared Of Doing, Do It.
New Year
Mistake
Years
The Doctor: Sorry, Do You Have A Name? Idris: Seven Hundred Years And Finally He Asks. The Doctor: But What Do I Call You? Idris: I Think You Call Me... Sexy? The Doctor: [embarrassed] Only When We're Alone. Idris: We Are Alone. The Doctor: Oh. Come On Then, Sexy.
Sexy
Sorry
Thinking
Yes. Growing Up Is Highly Overrated. Just Be An Author.
Growing Up
Growing
Overrated
None Of Us Know Where Our Stories Come From. That's Why Writers Make Fun Of People Who Ask Us Where We Get Our Ideas... Because We Don't Know.
Fun
Ideas
People
I Wonder If I Shall Ever See Her Again, And I Realize That I Scarcely Care. I Can Feel The Sheets Beneath Me, And The Cold Air On My Chest. I Feel Fine. I Feel Absolutely Fine. I Feel Nothing At All.
Air
Care
Cold
Human Beings Do Not Relate To Written Words In The Same Way That They Will Relate To Spoken Words. They Do Not Relate To Music In The Same Way That They Do To Pictures. It's All Different Parts Of Our Head, Different Parts Of Our Minds Processing This.
Mind
Different
Way
Delirium: 'what's The Name Of The Word For The Precise Moment When You Realize That You've Actually Forgotten How It Felt To Make Love To Somebody You Really Liked A Long Time Ago?' Dream: 'there Isn't One.' Delirium: 'oh. I Thought Maybe There Was.'
Dream
Names
Long
What Need, Dunstan Wondered, Could Someone Have Of The Storm-filled Eggshells?
Storm
Needs
Eggshells
All Bookshelves Are Magical.
Bookshelves
When Angels Go Bad They Are Worse Than Anyone Else. Remember Lucifer Used To Be An Angel.
Angel
Remember
Lucifer
Tomorrow May Be Hell, But Today Was A Good Writing Day, And On The Good Writing Days Nothing Else Matters.
Writing
May
Matter
Nobody Will Ever Hurt Her. She’ll Just Smile Her Faint Vague Wonderful Smile And Walk Away.
Hurt
Just Smile
Wonderful
Songs Remain. They Last...a Song Can Last Long After The Events And The People In It Are Dust And Dreams And Gone. That's The Power Of Songs.
Dream
Song
Dust
American Gods Was Designed To Be If Not Open-ended, At Least A Trilogy Kind Of Shape, So There's Definitely One More Book, Probably Another Couple Of Books There To Get Written.
Couple
Book
Shapes
I Finally Made Friends With My Father When I Entered My Twenties. We Had So Little In Common When I Was A Boy, And I Am Certain I Had Been A Disappointment To Him. He Did Not Ask For A Child With A Book, Off In Its Own World. He Wanted A Son Who Did What He Had Done; Swam And Boxed And Played Rugby, And Drove Cars At Speed With Abandon And Joy, But That Was Not What He Wound Up With.
Children
Disappointment
Father
The Short Story Is Still Like The Novel's Wayward Younger Brother, We Know That It's Not Respectable - But I Think That Can Also Add To The Glory Of It.
Brother
Thinking
Add
If You Cared Enough About Your Characters, What Happened To Them Was Interesting... It's Important To Care About Them, About Who They Are And What They Do...i Don't Really Care Whose Side They Are On, And They Can Be Monstrous On The Outside Or, Worse, On The Inside, But You Still Have To Want To Spend Time With Them.
Character
Interesting
Important
The Magic Of Comics Is That There Are Three People Involved In Any Comic: There Is Whoever Is Writing It, And Whoever Is Drawing It, And Then There's Whoever Is Reading It, Because The Really Important Things In Comics Are Occurring In The Panel Gutters, They're Occurring Between Panels As The Person Reading The Comics Is Moving You Through, Is Creating A Film In Their Heads.
Reading
Moving
Writing
It Is Sometimes A Mistake To Climb; It Is Always A Mistake Never Even To Make The Attempt.
Mistake
Fall
Sometimes
Chicago Happened Slowly, Like A Migraine.
Chicago
American Gods
Migraine
So, Having Found A Lady, Could You Not Have Come To Her Aid, Or Left Her Alone? Why Drag Her Into Your Foolishness?' 'love,' He Explained. She Looked At Him With Eyes The Blue Of The Sky. 'i Hope You Choke On It,' She Said, Flatly.
Eye
Blue
Sky
If It's True That Every Seven Years Each Cell In Your Body Dies And Is Replaced, Then I Have Truly Inherited My Life From A Dead Man; And The Misdeeds Of Those Times Have Been Forgiven, And Are Buried With His Bones.
Men
Cells
Years
You're Always You, And That Don't Change, And You're Always Changing, And There's Nothing You Can Do About It.
Change
Life Changing
Graveyard
How Do I Know You'll Keep Your Word?" Asked Coraline. "i Swear It," Said The Other Mother. "i Swear It On My Own Mother's Grave." "does She Have A Grave?" Asked Coraline. "oh Yes," Said The Other Mother. "i Put Her In There Myself. And When I Found Her Trying To Crawl Out, I Put Her Back.
Mother
Trying
Doe
There Aren't Any Good Guys, And There Aren't Any Bad Guys. There's Just Us. People. Doing Our Best To Get By.
People
Guy
Good Guy
Anything That Keeps You Happy And Writing Is Part Of My Writing Ritual: I Like Music, So I Tend To Have It Playing In The Background. But If I'm Interested, I Can Write In An Airport Waiting Areas.
Writing
Airports
Waiting
People Take On The Shapes Of The Songs And The Stories That Surround Them, Especially If They Don't Have Their Own Song.
Song
People
Stories
Stories Are Made Up By People Who Make Them Up. If They Work, They Get Retold. There's The Magic Of It.
People
Magic
Stories
Things Need Not Have Happened To Be True. Tales And Adventures Are The Shadow Truths That Will Endure When Mere Facts Are Dust And Ashes And Forgotten.
Adventure
Dust
Shadow
What's Your Name,' Coraline Asked The Cat. 'look, I'm Coraline. Okay?' 'cats Don't Have Names,' It Said. 'no?' Said Coraline. 'no,' Said The Cat. 'now You People Have Names. That's Because You Don't Know Who You Are. We Know Who We Are, So We Don't Need Names.
Cat
Names
People
You Must Have A Bladder Like Lake Erie. I Think Empires Rose And Fell In The Time It Took You To Pee. I Could Hear It The Whole Time." Thank You. Do You Want Something?
Thinking
Lakes
Want Something
It's Still National Library Week. You Should Be Especially Nice To A Librarian Today, Or Tomorrow. Sometime This Week, Anyway. Probably The Librarians Would Like Tea. Or Chocolates. Or A Reliable Source Of Funding.
Motivational
Appreciation
Kindness
Black As Night, Sweet As Sin.
Sweet
Coffee
Night
I Don't Just Randomly Kill People... I Kill People When It's Funny.
People
And Sometimes When You Fall... You Fly...
Beautiful
Fall
Sometimes
Stories Are The Things That Allow Us To Persuade Each Other That We're Human.
Stories
Humans
Talk Is Free But The Wise Man Chooses When To Spend His Words.
Wise
Men
Writer Advice... Write. Finish Things. Go For Walks. Read A Lot & Outside Your Comfort Zone. Stay Interested. Daydream. Write.
Writing
Advice
Comfort
What Do Stars Do? They Shine.
Stars
Shining
Be Proud Of Your Mistakes. Well, Proud May Not Be Exactly The Right Word, But Respect Them, Treasure Them, Be Kind To Them, Learn From Them. And, More Than That, And More Important Than That, Make Them. Make Mistakes. Make Great Mistakes, Make Wonderful Mistakes, Make Glorious Mistakes. Better To Make A Hundred Mistakes Than To Stare At A Blank Piece Of Paper Too Scared To Do Anything Wrong.
Mistake
Important
Be Kind
In Order For Stories To Work - For Kids And For Adults - They Should Scare. And You Should Triumph. There's No Point In Triumphing Over Evil If The Evil Isn't Scary.
Kids
Order
Evil
We Have An Obligation To Read Aloud To Our Children. To Read Them Things They Enjoy. To Read To Them Stories We Are Already Tired Of. To Do The Voices, To Make It Interesting, And Not To Stop Reading To Them Just Because They Learn To Read To Themselves. Use Reading-aloud Time As Bonding Time, As Time When No Phones Are Being Checked, When The Distractions Of The World Are Put Aside.
Children
Reading
Tired
In Comics, Collaboration Saves Your Life. How Well You Can Work With An Artist, A Colorist, A Letterer, Is How Good Your Comic Is.
Artist
Collaboration
Comic
Words Can Be Worrisome, Poeple Complex, Motives And Manners Unclear, Grant Her The Wisdom To Choose Her Path Right, Free From Unkindness And Fear.
Path
Manners
Motive
It’s An Artist’s Job To Show People The World They Live In. We Hold Up Mirrors.
Jobs
Artist
Mirrors
I Thought About Moving South, About Continuing To Run, Continuing To Pretend I Was Alive. But It Was, I Knew Now, Much Too Late For That. There Are Doors, After All, Between The Living And The Dead, And They Swing In Both Directions.
Running
Moving
Swings
I Believe In Absolute Honesty And Sensible Social Lies.
Honesty
Lying
Believe
They Also Held That The Way To Salvation Was To Give Way To Lust And Temptation In All Things. And No Greater Percentage Of Them Turned Up Here Than Of Any Other Religion. Amusing, Isn't It?
Giving
Temptation
Lust
And, Too Ignorant To Be Scared, Too Young To Be Awed, Tristan Thorn Traveled Beyond The Fields We Know.
Ignorant
Fields
Scared
[i Spent] Much Of My Time Reminding Matt Groening That I Really Need To Be A Head In A Jar On Futurama.
Jars
Needs
Reminding
To Be A Good Writer... Read A Lot And Write Every Day.
Writing
Good Writers
The Only People I Ever Get Irritated With Are The Ones Who Announce, Using My Twitter Handle, That They Are No Longer Following Me And Why.
People
Irritated
Following
I Was A Reader. I Loved Reading. Reading Things Gave Me Pleasure. I Was Very Good At Most Subjects In School, Not Because I Had Any Particular Aptitude In Them, But Because Normally On The First Day Of School They'd Hand Out Schoolbooks, And I'd Read Them--which Would Mean That I'd Know What Was Coming Up, Because I'd Read It.
Reading
School
Mean
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