As someone who left the world slightly more interesting than he found it.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 October 2023 source ↗
The question
How would you want people to remember you?Originally asked
Vogue, to one guest at a time, on camera, 73 Questions
A recurring legacy prompt in Vogue's 73 Questions, appearing with only minor wording changes.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Others on this question
View all 213 →As a decent human being.
Belinda Carlisle
American singer
As a singer who did everything her way, no compromise.
Cynthia Nixon
American actress and politician
As a citizen, a person involved in my community.
As the dark-haired bird from Bananarama.
More from Neil Gaiman
View profile →My soon-to-be ex-wife, Amanda. I wish I’d been able to do whatever would have been necessary all the way back to keep us as a unit. Probably the worst thing I did was not tell her how miserable I was, certain that I could turn this around somehow.
I’ve never read Proust.
And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art. I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn’t matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art.
Recorded
134th Commencement, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, University of the Arts (uarts.edu), via the Internet Archive, 17 May 2012
source ↗
Mostly the pain. I don’t want to be trapped in a body that hurts.
Imaginative, dull, amiable.
My kids, and getting some of the stories I had in my head on to paper in a way that wasn’t too far removed from the thing I dreamed about writing.
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Andrew O'Hagan, Armistead Maupin, Richard Coles, John Grisham, Eve Ensler, Ian Rankin
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