Coraline Neil Gaiman Quotes & Sayings

There," she said, waving her hands at the corridor. The expression of delight on her face was a very bad thing to see."You're wrong! You don't know where your parents are, do you?" she turned and looked at Coraline. "Now," she said, "you're going to stay here for ever and always. — Neil Gaiman

Coraline knew that when grown-ups told you something wouldn't hurt it almost always did. — Neil Gaiman

The reason you cannot see the Mouse Circus," said the man upstairs, "is that the mice are not yet ready and rehearsed. Also, they refuse to play the songs I have written for them. All the songs I have written for the mice to play go oompah oompah. But the white mice will only play toodle oodle, like that. I am thinking of trying them on different types of cheese. — Neil Gaiman

We... we could be friends, you know,' said Coraline.
'We could be rare specimens of an exotic breed of African dancing elephants,' said the cat. — Neil Gaiman

In the flat above Coraline's, under the roof, was a crazy old man with a big mustache. He told Coraline that he was training a mouse circus. He wouldn't let anyone see it. — Neil Gaiman

I will be brave, thought Coraline. No, I am brave. — Neil Gaiman

There's a but, isn't there?" said Coraline. "I can feel it. Like a rain cloud. — Neil Gaiman

It was as bad as the summer that her mother had taken the training wheels off Coraline's bicycle;but then, back then, in with all the cuts and scrapes (her knees had scabs on top of scabs) she had had a feeling of achievement. She was learning something, doing something she had not known how to do. Now she felt nothing but cold loss. She had failed the ghost children. She had failed her parents. She had failed herself, failed everything. — Neil Gaiman

Coraline took a deep breath and stepped into the darkness, where strange voices whispered and distant winds howled. She became certain that there was something in the dark behind her: something very old and very slow. Her heart beat so hard and so loudly she was scared it would burst out of her chest. She closed her eyes against the dark. Eventually — Neil Gaiman

Why does she want me?" Coraline asked the cat. "Why does she want me to stay here with her?"
"She wants something to love, I think," said the cat. "Something that isn't her. She might want something to eat as well. It's hard to tell with creatures like that. — Neil Gaiman

It won't hurt, said her other father. Coraline knew that when grown-ups told you something wouldn't hurt it almost always did. She shook her head. — Neil Gaiman

I have no plans to love you," said Coraline. "No matter what. You can't make me love you. — Neil Gaiman

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. — Neil Gaiman

they warned her to be sure she kept away from it. So Coraline set off to explore for it, so that she knew where it was, to keep away from it properly. She — Neil Gaiman

The mice have a message for you,' he whispered. Coraline didn't know what to say. 'The message is this. Don't go through the door.' He paused. 'Does that mean anything to you? — Neil Gaiman

Sometimes Coraline would forget who she was while she was daydreaming that she was exploring the Arctic, or the Amazon rainforest, or darkest Africa, and it was not until someone tapped her on the shoulder or said her name that Coraline would come back from a million miles away with a start, and all in a fraction of a second have to remember who she was, and what her name was, and that she was even there at all. — Neil Gaiman

CORALINE DISCOVERED THE DOOR a little while after they moved into the house. — Neil Gaiman

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. — Neil Gaiman

'Coraline' is Neil Gaiman's book, it sold a lot, it has a big fan base. It was originally conceived to be live action, but I never really wanted it to be. I always thought that it would work better as an animated film. — Henry Selick

And in her dream Coraline saw that the sun had set and the stars were twinkling in the darkening sky. Coraline stood in the meadow, and she watched as the three children (two of them walking, one flying) went away from her across the grass, silver in the light of the huge moon. — Neil Gaiman

You know that I love you.
And despite herself, Coraline nodded. It was true. The other mother loved her. But she loved Coraline as a miser loves money, or a dragon loves its gold. In the other mother's button eyes, Coraline knew knew that the other mother loved her as a possession, nothing more, a tolerated pet whose behavior was no longer amusing. — Neil Gaiman

She said, 'You know that I love you.' And, despite herself, Coraline nodded. It was true: the other mother loved her. But she loved Coraline as a miser loves money, or a dragon loves its gold. — Neil Gaiman

You can't make me love you. — Neil Gaiman

Mirrors,' she said, 'are never to be trusted. — Neil Gaiman

The thing was white, and huge, and swollen. Monstrous, thought Coraline, but also miserable. — Neil Gaiman

Coraline tried drawing the mist. After ten minutes of drawing she still had a white sheet of paper with "MIST" written on it one corner in slightly wiggly letters. She grunted and passed it to her mother.
"Mm. Very modern, dear," said Coraline's mother. — Neil Gaiman

I didn't know I had another mother,' said Coraline cautiously. 'Of course you do. Everyone does,' said the other mother, her black-button eyes gleaming. — Neil Gaiman

Coraline? Oh, there you are. Where on earth were you?' 'I was kidnapped by aliens,' said Coraline. 'They came down from outer space with ray guns, but I fooled them by wearing a wig and laughing in a foreign accent, and I escaped.' 'Yes, — Neil Gaiman

Fairy tales, before they were sanitized, were very dark, and kids love that. 'Coraline' by Neil Gaiman feels like Beckett for kids. I think there's plenty of room for that. And I think there's a danger of being too patronizing to children, having things too sanitized. — Edward Carey

She shut the door and put the string of keys back on top of the kitchen doorframe. 'You didn't lock it,' said Coraline. Her mother shrugged. 'Why should I lock it?' She asked. 'It doesn't go anywhere.' Coraline didn't say anything. — Neil Gaiman

It seemed to Coraline that it was crouching, and staring down at her, as if it were not really a house but only the idea of a house - and the person who had had the idea, she was certain, was not a good person. — Neil Gaiman

Coraline also explored for animals. She found a hedgehog, and a snakeskin )but no snake), and a rock that looked just like a frog, and a toad that looked just like a rock. — Neil Gaiman

Coraline wondered why so few of the adults she had met made any sense. She sometimes wondered who they thought they were talking to. — Neil Gaiman

CORALINE'S STORY
THERE WAS A GIRL HER NAME WAS APPLE. SHE USED TO DANCE A LOT. SHE DANCED AND DANCED UNTIL HER FEET TURND INTO SOSSAJES. THE END. — Neil Gaiman

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."
There was something irritatingly self-centered about the cat, Coraline decided. As if it were, in its opinion, the only thing in any world or place that could possibly be of any importance.
Half of her wanted to be very rude to it; the other half of her wanted to be polite and deferential. The polite half won. — Neil Gaiman

Coraline went over to the window and watched the rain come down. It wasn't the kind of rain you could go out in - it was the other kind, the kind that threw itself down from the sky and splashed where it landed. — Neil Gaiman

You know I love you,' said the other mother flatly.
'You have a very funny way of showing it,' said Coraline. — Neil Gaiman

How big are souls anyway? asked Coraline.
The other mother sat down at the kitchen table and leaned against the back wall, saying nothing. She picked at her teeth with a long crimson-varnished fingernail, then she tapped the finger, gently, tap-tap-tap against the polished black surface of her black button eyes. — Neil Gaiman

She sat down on one of her grandmother's uncomfortable armchairs, and the cat sprang up into her lap and made itself comfortable. The light that came through the picture window was daylight, real golden late-afternoon daylight, not a white mist light. The sky was a robin's-egg blue, and Coraline could see trees and, beyond the trees, green hills, which faded on the horizon into purples and grays. The sky had never seemed so sky, the world had never seemed so world ... Nothing, she thought, had ever been so interesting. — Neil Gaiman

The boy with the dirty face stood up and hugged Coraline tightly. 'Take comfort in this,' he whispered. 'Th'art alive. Thou livest. — Neil Gaiman

On the first day Coraline's family moved in, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible made a point of telling Coraline how dangerous the well was, and they warned her to be sure she kept away from it. So Coraline set off to explore for it, so that she knew where it was, to keep away from it properly. — Neil Gaiman

Coraline's father stopped working and made them all dinner.
Coraline was disgusted. "Daddy," she said, "you've made a recipe again."
"It's leek and potato stew with a tarragon garnish and melted Gruyere cheese," he admitted.
Coraline sighed. Then she went to the freezer and got out some microwave chips and a microwave minipizza.
"You know I don't like recipes," she told her father, while her dinner went around and around and the little red numbers on the microwave oven counted down to zero. — Neil Gaiman

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. — Neil Gaiman

Coraline shivered. She preferred her other mother to have a location: if she were nowhere, then she could be anywhere. And, after all, it is always easier to be afraid of something you cannot see. — Neil Gaiman

She smiled at Coraline, as if it had been a very long time since she had smiled and she had almost, but not quite, forgotten how. — Neil Gaiman

For tea she went down to see Misses Spink and Forcible. She had three digestive biscuits, a glass of limeade, and a cup of weak tea. The limeade was very interesting. It didn't taste anything like limes. It tasted bright green and vaguely chemical. Coraline liked it enormously. She wished they had it at home.
"How are your dear mother and father?" asked Miss Spink.
"Missing," said Coraline. "I haven't seen either of them since yesterday. I'm on my own. I think I've probably become a single child family. — Neil Gaiman

Now Coraline," said Miss Spink, "what's your name?"
"Coraline," said Coraline.
"And we don't know each other, do we?"
Coraline looked at the thin young woman with black button eyes and shook her head slowly. — Neil Gaiman

There are some people who keep track of every day and every hours, and there are people who don't, and Coraline's parents were solidly in the second camp. — Neil Gaiman

I think there should be more black characters, and more of all kinds of characters, in fiction. Almost all of the main characters in my novel Anansi Boys are black. And there are black characters in featured roles in all the other novels except Stardust and Coraline. (Something I was happy to see was not the case in Henry Selick's film.) — Neil Gaiman

We are small but we are many We are many we are small We were here before you rose We will be here when you fall — Neil Gaiman

Don't be silly," said Coraline. "I'm going back for them because they are my parents. And if they noticed I was gone I'm sure they would do the same for me. — Neil Gaiman

And then, in a skittering, chittering rush, it came. The hand, running high on its fingertips, scrabbled through the tall grass and up onto a tree stump. It stood there for a moment, like crab tasting the air, and then it made one triumphant, nail-clacking leap onto the center of the tablecloth.
Time slowed for Coraline. The white fingers closed around the black key ... — Neil Gaiman

We have teeth and we have tails
We have tails we have eyes
We were here before you fell
We will be here when you rise. — Neil Gaiman

I was kidnapped by aliens, they came down from outer space with ray guns, but I fooled them by wearing a wig and laughing in a foreign accent, and I escaped. — Neil Gaiman

We have eyes and we have nerveses
We have tails we have teeth
You'll all get what you deserveses
When we rise from underneath. — Neil Gaiman

There was a small knothole in one of the boards, and Coraline spent an afternoon dropping pebbles and acorns through the hole and waiting, and counting, until she heard the plop as they hit the water. — Neil Gaiman

She hoped it wasn't a spider. Spiders made Coraline intensely uncomfortable. — Neil Gaiman

I'm an explorer," said Coraline. — Neil Gaiman