The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman

 

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A while ago, I gave a brief post about The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman, and I said I would do another post when I finished the book. I had completed it a while ago, but I simply forgot to do this post. So, without further introduction, this is a wonderful read, and  I recommend it highly!

Gaiman’s book is a collections of short pieces he has written for a variety of reasons, including people, films, books, writing, and life. If you love his books, then you should enjoy his book.

Here are a few quotations from this wonderful book:

“What speculative fiction is really good at is not the future, but the present. Taking an aspect of it that troubles or is dangerous, and extending or extrapolating that aspect into something that allows the people of that time to see what they are doing from a different angle and a different place. It’s cautionary.” (178)

“Ideas, written ideas are special. They are the way we transmit our stories and our ideas from one generation to the next. If we lose them, we lose our shared history. We lose much of what makes us human. And fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gift of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over. ” (181-182)

“And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.” (459)

I give this book five stars out of five!

Gaiman, Neil. The View from  the Cheap Seats. HarperCollins. 2017.

Quotations on Justice

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“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

                                                                      Elie Wiesel

 

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“No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.”

                                                                      Theodore Roosevelt

 

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“When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?”

                                                                       Eleanor Roosevelt

Quotations on Education

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“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.”

                                                                        Walter Cronkite

 

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“He who opens a school door, closes a prison.”

                                                                        Victor Hugo

 

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“Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.”

                                                                        Malala Yousafzai

 

Quotations by Mark Twain

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“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

 

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.”

 

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

 

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Quotations on Patriotism

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“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”

                                                                    Theodore Roosevelt

 

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“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.”

                                                                     Mark Twain

 

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“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

                                                                     John. F. Kennedy

I Stand With the People of Manchester, England

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Once again, the people of the world have witnessed another horrific attack, this time on a group of concert-goers, many of them children, in Manchester, England. This terrifying attack and its  consequences are beyond horror. With great sorrow, I offer my prayers and thoughts to the people of Manchester.

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Quotations on Strength

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“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”

                                                                          Lao Tzu

 

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“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”

                                                                         Eleanor Roosevelt

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“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

                                                                        Mahatma Gandhi