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Dream: Tonight I feel alone. I have always been solitary, but here on the nightward shores of dream, loneliness washes over me in waves, lapping and pulling at my spirit. I sprinkle sand into the waters of night. The grains burn as they fall, reminding me of another in times long passed away. I watched him even then as he fell, his face undefeated, his eyes still proud. It is time for me to walk the abyss. Time to reclaim my own. I must talk to Morningstar. I do not have high hopes for the meeting.
Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes


Dream: The wood of suicides has changed since my last visit to hell. I remember it as a tiny grove. Now it resembles a forest. Hell is changing.
Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes


Dream: I thank you. The kings of Hell are honorable. I will remember this.
Lucifer: Honorable? You joke, surely. Look around you, Morpheus. The million lords of Hell stand arrayed about you. Tell us why we should let you leave. Helmet or no, you have no power here--What power have dreams in Hell?
Dream: You say I have no power? Perhaps you speak truly. But--you say that dreams have no power here? Tell me, Lucifer Morningstar... Ask yourselves, all of you... What power would Hell have if those here imprisoned were not able to dream of Heaven?
Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes


John Dee: People think dreams aren't real because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams ARE real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories,and puns and lost hopes.
Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes


All Bette's stories end happily. That's because she knows where to stop. She realized the real problem with stories--if you keep them going long enough, they always end in death.
Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes


Dream: What... What do you think you are doing?
John Dee: What does it LOOK like I'm doing? I've sent my little ruby into their deepest dreams, to dredge up the blackness from their souls. I'm hurting them all. I'm driving them mad
Dream: You are using the Dreamstone to do THAT? Why?
John Dee: Mmmm. Hmm. Revenge, possibly. That and dreams of power. In the beginning I thought I'd tell them I was doing this and they'd make me ruler of the world if I stopped. But it's so much fun. I don't want to stop. I think I'll dismember the world and then I'll dance in the wreckage.
Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes


Dream: I was more powerful than I had been in eons. I returned the human to the madhouse... You see, until then I'd been driven. I'd had a true quest, a purpose beyond my function--and then, suddenly, the quest was over. I felt...drained. Disappointed. Let down. Does that make sense? I had been sure that as soon as I had everything back I'd feel good. But inside I felt worse than when I started. I feel like... nothing. There. You asked. I'm sorry. Maybe I don't have an answer.
Death: Have you finished?
Dream: Yes.
Death: You could have called me, you know.
Dream: I didn't want to worry you.
Death: I. Don't. BeLIEVE. IT. Let me tell you something, Dream. And I'm only going to say this once, so you'd better pay attention. You are utterly the stupidest, most self-centered, appalingest excuse for an anthropomorphic personification on this or any other plane! An infantile, adolescent, pathetic specimen! Feeling all sorry for yourself because your little game is over, and you haven't got the--the balls to go and find a new one! I don't believe this. Dream, you're as bad as, as-- AS DESIRE! Or worse! Didn't it OCCUR to you that I'd be worried SILLY about you?
Dream: I didn't think--
Death: That's exactly IT! You didn't THINK! You LUMMOX, you overgrown bubble-headed--
Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes


Death: Gets me down, too. Mostly they aren't too keen to see me. They fear the sunless lands. But they enter your realm each night without fear.
Dream: And I am far more terrible than you, my sister
Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes


Dream: I find myself wandering about humanity. Their attitude to my sister's gift is so strange. Why do they fear the sunless lands? It is as natural to die as it is to be born. But they fear her. Dread her. Feebly they attempt to placate her. They do not love her. Many thousands of years ago I heard a song in a dream, a mortal song that celebrated her gift. I still remember it.

"Death is before me today:
Like the recovery of a sick man,
Like going forth into a garden after sickness.

Death is before me today:
Like the odor of myrrh,
Like sitting under a sail in a good wind.

Death is before me today:
Like the course of a stream,
Like the return of a man from the war-galley to his house.

Death is before me today:
Like the home that a man longs to see,
After years spent as a captive."

That forgotten poet understood her gifts. My sister has a function to perform, even as I do. The Endless have their responsibilities. I have responsibilities. I walk by her side, and the darkness lifts from my soul. I walk with her; and I hear the gentle beating of mighty wings...
Neil Gaiman - The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes