A LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF: Neil Gaiman

I definitely didn't feel I fitted in. I was awkward, uncomfortable, and not terribly happy in the real world
but incredibly happy in books. I used them as a survival guide and also as an escape.
I dreamed of becoming a writer but it seemed impossible.

I wish I could tell young Neil,that there was a time in the future where he would be onstage
reading his poetry to an audience with a backing band that included David Byrne. Or that he'd sell out Carnegie Hall.

If I really wanted to show off to teenage Neil, I'd show him my five Hugo Awards.
Those awards would matter more to him than any other award.
If I could tell the 12 year old Neil that one day he'll write a Doctor Who episode...wow.

In 2009 my father died. When I went home there was a message from my dad on the answer machine.
It was just a cheerful message saying,
“It was mine and your mother's fiftieth wedding anniversary yesterday-beautiful weather and you know,
it was a lovely sunny day fifty years ago too. Anyway, just calling to say hello,” and that was the first time I cried.

So many people who were part of my life and landscape
I wish I could go back and encourage myself to spend more time with those people. Learn more from them.

Stephen King gave me the best bit of advice, “You know, you've got to enjoy this. This is magic.
You're one of the most beloved comics writers in the world. Enjoy it,” but I never did.
I worried it would all go away. I worried I'd break it.

It wasn't until I was 48 and met my wife Amanda that I thought,
“Oh, you run your life completely different to mine. You fill it with doing the things you like,
and meeting the people you like and eating the things you like. I suppose I could try that too”.

If I could live one day again, I'd take my fiftieth party in New Orleans.
In the morning my wife, who was still my fiancee, inveigled me into a hat shop and bought me a top hat.
Then she said she was off to find a tea shop and and she'd text me when she found one.
Ten minutes later I headed off to meet her and there was Amanda, dressed as a bride, posing as a human statue.
Then a load of our friends stepped out and my friend Jason performed a non-binding marriage ceremony
between an author in a top hat and a human being dressed as a bride.

The whole thing was wonderful. I looked around at all my loved ones and thought,
 “Okay, this is what you get for being alive for fifty years”.

Amanda is amazing. There was this point where I thought,
“I think I want to marry you because I'm never going to be bored again."
She does these amazing, surprising and peculiar things that I would never think of doing.
These things where you think,
“Really? You're really going to do that? Okay.
I'll stand here and hold your clothes and if you get arrested I'll bail you out. I love you”.