Death Quotes

“Death has a body like a model, the clothes of a poet and the smile of your best friend. She wears a top hat for fun, her ankh necklace for power, and carries a big black umbrella for travelling to the 'sunless lands.' I wonder what she smells like? I'm sure it's fresh and clean and her laugh must be rinkly or maybe it's warm and chuckly, but whatever it is, Death laughs a lot.

We talk about the 'miracle of birth' but what about the 'miracle of death'? We have the science of death pretty much figured out, but death's magic and inevitability have been feared and ignored for a long time now.

What if Death is a person?”
― Neil Gaiman, Death: The Time of Your Life

“Living and seizing to live are imaginary solutions. Existence lies elsewhere.”
― Neil Gaiman, Death: The Time of Your Life

“That’s what you were trying to say, isn’t it? I mean, I think … mostly we’re too busy living to stop and notice we’re alive. But that sometimes we do. And that that makes the rest of it matter.”
― Neil Gaiman, Death: The Time of Your Life

“Sexton: I think the whole world's gone mad.
Death: Uh-uh. It's always like this. You probably just don't get out enough.”
― Neil Gaiman, Death: The Time of Your Life

“Can I ask a stupid question?"
"Sure. Ask away."
"It's sort of more than one question. But... Look, um... Why do we hurt? Why do we die? Why isn't life good all the time? Why isn't it fair?"
"Those aren't stupid questions, Hazel. For some people they're the only questions that matter."
"Does that mean you won't answer them?"
"Sure, I'll answer. But it's kind of a big subject, and it's got lots of answers, and the answers don't really mean anything-- They aren't stupid questions but they could just as well be 'When is purple?' or 'Why does Thursday?', if you see what I mean..."
"Not really."
"Well, I think some of it is probably contrasts. Light and Shadow. If you never had the bad times, how would you know you had the good times? But some of it is just: If you're going to be Human, then there are a whole load of things that come with it. Eyes, a Heart, Days and Life.
It's the moments that illuminate it, though. The times you don't see when you're having them... They make the rest of it matter.”
― Neil Gaiman, Death: The Time of Your Life

“out of nowhere, into the here”
― Neil Gaiman, Death: The Time of Your Life

“It occurred to me that the whole of art--maybe the whole of life--is just spray-painting your name on a wall, hoping that someone will see it after you've gone. And kids are to make sure that there's someone around who'll remember you when you're not around anymore.”
― Neil Gaiman, Death: The Time of Your Life