Neil Gaiman, Quotable Guy

Politicians love to give soundbytes, catchy phrases that stick. They don’t care if it’s just talk, doesn’t mean anything and will never be fulfilled anyway. And then there’s Neil Gaiman, author of science fiction, fantasy and children’s literature who is such a good speaker that “he has millions of devoted fans who eat his every word like air”. He doesn’t do soundbytes, he enthralls you with entire paragraphs!

Back in 2012, at a keynote address at the University of the Arts, Gaiman said:

“The problems of failure are hard. The problems of success can be harder, because nobody warns you about them.”

I was curious about the second line, the problems of success. In another interview, he elaborated based on his own experience:

“This (success as an author) has huge problems, which are mostly about writing. I’m currently dealing with how to go back to being a writer. Rather than whatever it is that I am. A traveller, a signer, a promoter, a talker, a lecturer. I’m building new ways to get back to being a writer, because there are lots of things that are more fun than sitting in a room, on your own, writing stuff, that have to do with actually interacting with other human beings. And going out and doing stuff.”

I guess this is what Gaiman described in his keynote as:

“The biggest problem of success is that the world conspires to stop you doing the thing that you do, because you are successful.”

In his keynote address, he had also said:

“(The) problem of any kind of even limited success is the unshakable conviction that you are getting away with something, and that any moment now they will discover you.”

That line I did not understand at all. Maybe a few feel that way, but surely, most people feel they earned it. Then why say it in a public talk meant for the majority? The interview provided the answer:

“There is a weird danger zone you get into where [editors] have no power, because what they want is your name on their book, or whatever. So, you write a short story and you hand it in, and you’re not sure if it’s any good or not. And everybody goes, ‘Oh this is wonderful, thank you so much.’”

Then I understood. Gaiman is one of those guys who doesn’t get carried away by his success or fame. He realizes there will be sycophants and there will be people who know his name will sell anything and hence won’t give him honest feedback. Hence that nagging feeling. Which is also why he values his pre-fame days:

“It was much, much more fun being absolutely unknown, and have people go, ‘Oh my God, this guy’s good’.”

Because then it was sincere, then they mean what they say.

This guy is definitely worth Google’ing for more of his quotes.