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Erasmus Fry: Calliope, I'm giving you to Richard. You're HIS now.
Calliope (a muse): But you said--You told me, you PROMISED me that you would free me before you died. You said I could have my freedom...
Erasmus Fry: Put not your trust in princes, my dear. Nor in an aging author who has never been what one might call a shining example when it came to keeping his word... Writers are liars, my dear. Surely you have realized that by now?
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Dream Country: Calliope


And Madoc took Calliope back to his home, and locked her in the topmost room, which he had prepared for her. His first action was to rape her, nervously on the musty old camp bed. She's not even human, he told himself. She's thousands of years old. But her flesh was warm, and her breath was sweet, and she choked back tears like a child whenever he hurt her. It occured to him momentarily that the old man might have cheated him: given him a real girl. That he, Rick Madoc, might possibly have done something wrong, even criminal...
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Dream Country: Calliope


Dream: Hold your tongue. She has been held captive for more than sixty years. Stripped of all possessions. Demeaned, abused, and hurt. I...know how she must feel. And you will not free her because "You need the ideas?" You disgust me, Richard Madoc. You want ideas? You want dreams? You want stories? Then ideas you will have. IDEAS IN ABUNDANCE.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Dream Country: Calliope


Richard Madoc: I just had this weird dream...What do you KNOW about it? Huh? Are YOU doing that? Giving me nightmares? Are you doing it? TELL ME! Tell me, or so help me, I'll, I'll...
Calliope: No, I am not doing it, Richard Madoc. You have met Oneiros, whom the Romans called the shaper of form. He was once my lover, and he was the father of my son.
Richard Madoc: I didn't know you'd ever had a son.
Calliope: You know nothing about me, Richard Madoc. I am real, Richard. I am more than a receptacle for your seed, or an inspiration for your tales. Still, it is too late now to let that concern you. Goodbye, Richard Madoc. Enjoy your party.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Dream Country: Calliope


Matthew: Why have you ventured to the heart of the Dreaming, little cat? There is nothing here for you.
The Wise Old Siamese: "I have come here for justice; I have come for revelation; I have come for wisdom." The bird flew lower, but it did not come within my reach. "Justice?" it repeated. "Justice is a delusion you will not find on this or any other sphere. And wisdom? Wisdom is no part of dreams, lithe walker, though dreams are a part of the sum each life's experiences, which is the only wisdom that matters."
Matthew: But revelation? That is the province of dream. It can be yours, but only if your heart is strong.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Dream Country: Dream of a Thousand Cats


Dream: It is a fool's prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Dream Country: A Midsummer Night's Dream


Dream: It is what he wanted. But he did not understand the price. Mortals never do. They only see the prize, their heart's desire, their dream... But the price of getting what you want, is getting what you wanted
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Dream Country: A Midsummer Night's Dream


Dream: Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Dream Country: A Midsummer Night's Dream


Rainie: I hate making faces. They give me dreams. I only have two kinds of dreams: the bad and the terrible. Bad dreams I can cope with. They're just nightmares, and they end eventually. The terrible dreams are the good dreams. In my terrible dreams, everything's fine. I'm still with the company. I still look like me. None of the last five years ever happened. Sometimes I'm married. Once I even had kids. I even knew their names. Everything's wonderful and normal and fine. And then I wake up. And I'm still me. And I'm still here. And that is truly terrible.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Dream Country: Facade


Rainie: Who are you? How did you get in?
Death: The door was open. I heard you crying. I'm sorry if I disturbed you. You just looked like you might need someone to talk to.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Dream Country: Facade


Death: You people always hold onto old identities, old faces and masks, long after they've served their purpose. But you've got to learn to throw things away eventually.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Dream Country: Facade>


Rainie: ...Who are you?
Death: Don't you know?
Rainie: Yes. I think I do. And you've come for me? Blessed, merciful Death. You've come to make it all stop?
Death: No. I haven't come for you, Rainie. There was a woman upstairs, changing the light bulb in her kid's room. The stepladder slipped... Like I said: I was passing and I heard you crying, and, well, the door was open... Anyway: I'm not blessed, or merciful. I'm just me. I've got a job to do, and I do it. Listen: Even as we're talking, I'm there for old and young, innocent and guilty, those who die together and those who die alone. I'm in cars and boats and planes, in hospitals and forests and abattoirs. For some folks death is a release, and for others death is an abomination, a terrible thing. But in the end, I'm there for all of them. Rainie, in west Africa a small village is being massacred by mercenaries, in pay of their own government. I'm there. In the farthest reaches of a distant galaxy, a planet is being ripped apart by internal stresses; the planet was the home of many crystal intelligences, calm and fine and beautiful. I am there as well. I'm in all those places, and I'm also here, talking to you. But... I'm not your death. At least, not yet. When the first living thing existed, I was there, waiting. When the last living thing dies, my job will be finished. I'll put the chairs on the tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave.
Rainie: I...I don't think I understood all that. But...are you saying you won't help me? Is that what you're saying? That I've got to live another two thousand years of being a freak? Two thousand years of hell?
Death: You make youre OWN hell, Rainie.............Okay. I'll help you. If that's what you want. That's what I get for being involved...
Rainie: You'll kill me? Take my life? Give me oblivion?
Death: Your life is your own, Rainie. So is your death. And oblivion...? That's not an option, I'm afraid.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman - Dream Country: Facade