Life & Wisdom Quote by Neil Gaiman

A lesser writer might treat fandom like a metric; Neil Gaiman treats it like weather: improbable, generous, and not entirely deserved. “Partly because I get such astonishingly nice fans” reads casual, even throwaway, but it’s doing several jobs at once. The key word is “partly” - a small act of rhetorical humility that dodges the ego-trap of claiming total credit for his career while still acknowledging that audience devotion is a real, material force. He frames support as something that happens to him, not something he’s conquered.

The subtext is a careful reciprocity. Gaiman’s public persona has long been built in the borderland between auteur and approachable internet uncle: responsive on social platforms, attentive to readers’ stories, comfortable with the intimacy of conventions and signings. Calling fans “astonishingly nice” isn’t just praise; it’s community management. It elevates a norm (kindness) and quietly asks people to keep performing it. Fandom, in this telling, is less a swarm and more a culture with standards.

There’s also a soft defense embedded in the compliment. Fandoms are routinely caricatured as obsessive, entitled, or toxic. By stressing niceness, Gaiman counters that stereotype and protects the space where his work circulates: a mythic sensibility sustained by human warmth. It’s a line that flatters readers, sure, but it also reveals a shrewd understanding of modern authorship: your books are the product, your relationship with readers is the infrastructure.