Vanessa Crooks

“We were expecting to see you at the market."
"Yes. Well. Some people thought I was dead. I was forced to keep a low profile."
"Why . . . why did some people think you were dead?"
The marquis looked at Richard with eyes that had seen too much and gone too far. "Because they killed me.”
― Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere

“When he had first arrived, he had found London huge, odd, fundamentally incomprehensible, with only the Tube map, that elegant multicolored topographical display of underground railway lines and stations, giving it any semblance of order. Gradually he realized that the Tube map was a handy fiction that made life easier but bore no resemblance to the reality of the shape of the city above. It was like belonging to a political party, he thought once, proudly, and then, having tried to explain the resemblance between the Tube map and politics, at a party, to a cluster of bewildered strangers, he had decided in the future to leave political comment to others.”
― Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere

“Until that moment she had never thought she could do it. Never thought she would be brave enough or scared enough, or desperate enough to dare.”
― Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere

“Nothing,” said Richard. “I really don’t want anything. Nothing at all.” And then he realized how true that was; and how dreadful a thing it had become. “Have you ever got everything you ever wanted? And then realized it wasn’t what you wanted at all?” “Can’t say that I have,” she said, picking the grit from the corner of her eyes. “I thought I wanted this,” said Richard. “I thought I wanted a nice normal life. I mean, maybe I am crazy. I mean, maybe. But if this is all there is, then I don’t want to be sane. You know?”
― Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere