Sandman II: The Doll's House

These quotes are taken from Neil Gaiman's the Sandman, a most excellent comic book.
He owns the words.


One day a stranger came to the city. Tall he was, and dressed all in black; flames danced in the blackness of his robe, and his eyes were stars in deep pools of dark water. And he said nothing to any man.

And Nada lowered her head, and she left that place. But the weaverbird followed her. And the weaverbird said to her, “I have heard that there is a tree that grows on the mountains of the sun. And on that tree grow berries of flame. . . . And if a human were to swallow a berry from the tree, it would take them to the side of their true love.” “How am I to get a berry from that tree?” Nada asked the weaverbird. . . . And the little bird said, “I will fetch it for you.”

Goldie: aarkle.

Morpheus: The Corinthian is not the . . . most social . . . of nightmares.

Spider women: Hello, new housemate, we heard the commotion, and thought it proper to introduce ourselves. I am Chantal. This is Zelda. Zelda and myself have lived here for two years . . . we possess the largest collection of stuffed spiders in private hands on the eastern seaboard.

Morpheus: Let us meet here again, Robert Gadling. In this tavern of the White Horse. In a hundred years.

Rose: If I hear another of your theological paradoxes, I’ll scream. Frankly, today I don’t care if God exists or not.
Gilbert: I doubt he feels likewise, Miss Walker.

Barbie (of Barbie and Ken) dreams:
Barbie: I can hardly believe that we are here at last, at the Arch of the Porpentine.
Martin Tenbones: Our journey has indeed been long, Miss Barbara; and many’s the worthy companion we have found and lost along the way.

Chantal (of the Spider Women) dreams:
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.

Rose: ‘And then she woke up.’ I suppose there are worse endings.

Dream (to Desire):
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. We are their toys. Their dolls, if you will.

Neil Gaiman: Never apologize. Never explain.


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