I like smoking cigarettes. It's something normal people do. I smoke a cigarette, and pretend I'm normal. And I wish I was dead.
Element Girl, in SANDMAN #20: "Façade"
"And you've come for me? Blessed, merciful death. You've come to make it all stop?"
"No. I haven't come for you, Rainie. There was a woman upstairs, changing the light bulb in her kid's room. The stepladder slipped... Like I said, I was passing and I heard you crying, and, well, the door was open..."
Element Girl and Death, in SANDMAN #20: "Façade"
Anyway: I'm not blessed or merciful. I'm just me. I've got a job to do and I do it. Listen: even as we're talking, I'm there for old and young, innocent and guilty, those who die together and those who die alone. I'm in cars and boats and planes, in hospitals and forests and abattoirs. For some folks death is a release and for others death is an abomination, a terrible thing. But in the end, I'm there for all of them.
Death, in SANDMAN #20: "Façade"
When the first living thing existed, I was there, waiting. When the last living thing dies, my job is finished. I'll put the chairs on tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave.
Death, in SANDMAN #20: "Façade"
Rainie, mythologies take longer to die than people believe. They linger on in a kind of dream country that affects all of you.
Death, in SANDMAN #20: "Façade"
It's his never-ending battle against Apep, the serpent that never dies. Dumb. I told him, "The serpent that never dies is dead. I took her three thousand years ago! The never-ending battle ended..."
Death, in SANDMAN #20: "Façade"
No, Mister Mulligan. I really can't get a message to her. I'm sorry. Who am I? Just a friend. Sometimes. Maybe. Sorry I couldn't help any. Be seeing you...
Death, in SANDMAN #20: "Façade"
I'm going stir-crazy, and I've joined the ranks of the walking brain-dead, but otherwise I'm just peachy.
Lyta Hall on parenthood, in SANDMAN #40: "Parliament of Rooks"
"Hi Gregory. How they hanging?"
"UWURRRK."
"Yeah? You should try being a bird sometime."
Gregory the gargoyle, and Matthew the Raven in SANDMAN #40: "Parliament of Rooks"
It is sometimes a mistake to climb, it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt.
Dream, in SANDMAN: "Fear of Falling"
"I hesitate to tell you this, Sam, but there are certain individuals who have accused me of. Mm. Well, being mad."
"You shock me, Your Majesty."
Norton I, Emperor of the United States, and Samuel Langhorne Clemens, in SANDMAN #31: "Three Septembers and a January"
"I am pleased to see that you are healthy."
"Healthy? I'm dead, Norton. You ever swallowed aconite? You don't get up and walk away again."
Norton I, Emperor of the United States, and the King of Pain in SANDMAN #31: "Three Septembers and a January"
I am the Emperor of the United States, Pain. I am content to be what I am. What more than that could any man desire?
Norton I, in SANDMAN #31: "Three Septembers and a January"
"Desire? You disappoint me. This evening's display: bringing back a dead man to offer Norton the pleasures of the world. It was not very subtle."
"Go screw yourself, big brother."
Dream and Desire, in SANDMAN #31: "Three Septembers and a January"
I'll bring the Kindly Ones down on his blasted head.
Desire, in SANDMAN #31: "Three Septembers and a January"
They say that the world rests on the backs of 36 living saints - 36 unselfish men and women. Because of them the world continues to exist. They are the secret kings and queens of this world.
Death, in SANDMAN #31: "Three Septembers and a January"
I've met a lot of kings, and emperors and heads of state in my time, Joshua. I've met them all. And you know something? I think I liked you best.
Death, in SANDMAN #31: "Three Septembers and a January"
It's a great hat. Can I try it on?
Death, in SANDMAN #31: "Three Septembers and a January"
"I must confess, I have always wondered what lay beyond life, my dear."
"Yeah, everybody wonders. And sooner or later everybody gets to find out."
Norton I and Death, in SANDMAN #31: "Three Septembers and a January"
Aye, Master Orpheus. Well, they do say that two heads are better than one.
Lady Johanna Constantine, in SANDMAN #29: "Thermidor"
"Will you kill all the poets, then, St. Just? Will you kill all the dreamers?"
"When they have served their purpose, yes. Fabre D'Eglantine devised our calendar, and he died with Danton last Germinal."
Lady Johanna Constantine and St. Just, in SANDMAN #29: "Thermidor"
[Thomas] Paine is useful as a rabble-rouser; but rabble-rousers are needed before revolutions, not after.
St. Just, in SANDMAN #29: "Thermidor"
Your son's head is valuable to you, and I am attached to mine. Indeed, hitherto we have been inseparable.
Lady Johanna Constantine, in SANDMAN #29: "Thermidor"
And from that Time on, the Song of Orpheus has always hovered at the Edge of my Perception; a Melody I can never fully recover, try howsoever I will. And do not doubt that there are many in Authority to whom I would sing it, if 'twere within my Power.
Lady Johanna Constantine, in SANDMAN #29: "Thermidor"
And I suppose if everybody cut off their heads and stuffed asafoetida into their mouths and buried their hearts at crossroads, then you'd do it too?
The grandfather in SANDMAN #38: "The Hunt"
"Trees there were, old as trees can be, huge and grasping with hearts black as sin. Strange trees that some said walked in the night --"
"Okay. It was a forest. It had trees in it. I'm not stupid. I got it."
Grandfather and granddaughter in SANDMAN #38: "The Hunt"
The young man's mother had died bringing him into the world; she gave him life, a small wooden finger-ring, and the name Vassily. There have been worse legacies.
The grandfather's tale in SANDMAN #38: "The Hunt"
"A small bone that he had what?"
"Carved into the shape of a small bone."
"But it was a small bone already."
"He carved it into the shape of a different small bone. All right?"
Grandfather and granddaughter in SANDMAN #38: "The Hunt"
"Of course you don't believe in fairies. You're fifteen. You think I believed in fairies at fifteen? Took me until I was at least a hundred and forty. Hundred and fifty, maybe. Anyway, he wasn't a fairy. He was a librarian. All right?"
"Mm. It all sounds suspiciously post-modern to me, Grandpa. Are you sure this is really a story from the old country?"
Grandfather and granddaughter in SANDMAN #38: "The Hunt"
Listen, blood of my blood, although I'm a hard man to anger, and I love you deeply, if you interrupt me again so help me I'll rip out your throat with my teeth.
The grandfather gets annoyed in SANDMAN #38: "The Hunt"
You shouldn't trust the story-teller; only trust the story
The grandfather in SANDMAN #38: "The Hunt"
In the black shadow of the Baba Yaga babies screamed and mothers miscarried; milk soured and men went mad.
In SANDMAN #38: "The Hunt"
Do you know how long it's been since I mislaid a book? Well, let's just say the continents weren't in their current shapes, not that that means anything to you.
Lucien in SANDMAN #38: "The Hunt"
Actors... I don't like actors. It's a profession based on lies and disrespect. Pretending to be what you are not.
The emperor Augustus in SANDMAN #30: "August"
It will be good to be dead - to be a god.
The emperor Augustus in SANDMAN #30: "August"
We write our names in the sand, and then the waves roll in and wash them away.
The emperor Augustus in SANDMAN #30: "August"
"There's a few thousand square miles of central Australia, a couple of Pacific islands, a field in Ireland, an occasional mountain in Arizona..."
"An occasional mountain?"
"It's not a very big mountain, but it's only there occasionally."
Fiddler's Green and Rustichello, in SANDMAN #39: "Soft Places"
"You look terrible. White as the man in the moon. Are you always so pale?"
"That depends on who's watching."
Marco Polo and Dream, in SANDMAN #39: "Soft Places"
And forewarned is seldom forearmed. Not even in the shifting zones.
Dream, in SANDMAN #39: "Soft Places"
He found himself able to see each falling grain, distinct and unique; and he knew then he was dreaming.
From SANDMAN #39: "Soft Places"
There are really patterns. It was a revelation, of a kind. Dreams and sand and stories. Deserts and cities and time.
From SANDMAN #39: "Soft Places"
The grains fell slowly, tumbling down from the dream-king's pale fingers into his own travel-stained hands.
The patterns they formed as they fell illuminated his mind: a landscape strobed by flashes of distant lightning.
From SANDMAN #39: "Soft Places"
You are mortal: it is the mortal way. You attend the funeral, you bid the dead farewell. You grieve. Then you continue with your life.
From SANDMAN: "The Song of Orpheus"
And at times the fact of her absence will hit you like a blow to the chest, and you will weep. But this will happen less and less as time goes on.
From SANDMAN: "The Song of Orpheus"
She has lots of things, although she seldom has much use for them. You should see her floppy hat collection.
Destruction talks about Death in SANDMAN: "The Song of Orpheus"
And Herakles was full of it. He just got dead drunk for a couple of weeks in Phrygia and told everyone he'd been to the land of the dead.
Death, in SANDMAN: "The Song of Orpheus"
"I thought you could foretell the future?"
"I don't need to know the future. When the future's over, then it's me..."
Orpheus and Death, in SANDMAN: "The Song of Orpheus"
"Mortal man?"
"Yes?"
"Beware of the dog."
Charon warns Orpheus, in SANDMAN: "The Song of Orpheus"
Thou hast made the Furies cry, Orpheus. They will never forgive you for that.
Queen Persephone, in SANDMAN: "The Song of Orpheus"
Orpheus watched through tear-stung eyes until he was out of sight. His father never even tried to look back.
The final line of SANDMAN: "The Song of Orpheus"
And there was also in that room the Other Egg of the Phoenix. (For the Phoenix when its time comes to die lays two eggs, one black, one white: From the white egg hatches the Phoenix-bird itself, when its time is come, but what hatches from the black egg no one knows.)
From SANDMAN #50: "Ramadan"
There were paths through the palace that none but Haroun Al Raschid knew; and this was because those who had drawn up the plans, and those who had built the paths, had all long since gone to their final reward: for it is seldom healthy to know the secrets of a king.
From SANDMAN #50: "Ramadan"
Imagine a thousand thousand fireflies of every shape and color; Oh, that was Baghdad at night in those days.
From SANDMAN #50: "Ramadan"
You have called me here, Haroun. It is unwise to summon what you cannot dismiss.
Dream, in SANDMAN #50: "Ramadan"
And he prays as he walks (cursing his one weak leg the while), prays to Allah (who made all things) that somewhere, in the darkness of dreams, abides the other Baghdad (that can never die), and the other egg of the Phoenix. But Allah alone knows all.
From SANDMAN #50: "Ramadan"
Dave McKean: Buy him a Margarita and he'll tell you why cats smile.
From the biographies in the SANDMAN "Fables and Reflections" TPB