“Once upon a time,’ is code for ‘I’m lying to you.’ We experience stories as lies and truth at the same time. We learn to empathize with real people via made-up people. The most important thing that fiction does is it lets us look out through other eyes, and that teaches us empathy—that behind every pair of eyes is somebody like us.”

English author, contemporary

Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. He is known for works that move easily between page and screen, including The Sandman and novels such as Good Omens, Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, Anansi Boys, The Graveyard Book, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane. His career spans comics, fiction, and adaptation work. Several of his stories were brought to the screen, including Coraline and American Gods, and he co-created the television versions of Good Omens and The Sandman. His writing ranges across fantasy, myth, and modern storytelling in different forms.