And this was his response:
I won the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Short Story for an H. P. Lovecraft /Arthur Conan Doyle mashup fiction, so fanfiction had better be legitimate, because I’m not giving the Hugo back.
Or the 20O5 Locus Award for Best Novelette. I’m not giving that back either.
This is a brilliant response. And yeah, it should be obvious. It’s like the dumb question “are video games art?” B***h, are you blind, deaf, and stupid? But I’m sure idiots asked the same question when television was new back in the day.
As an aside, I’m writing a blockbuster of a progressive mental health novel. If I get fan art and fan fiction, I’m going to be flattered as hell.
A take of his on audio books:
https://journal.neilgaiman.com/2005/05/looking-or-listening.asp?m=1
He has quite a few W takes that I have seen.
My favorite absolute boss take from him was reassuring an author that only had two people show up to a signing -
Chelsea Banning, Author : Only 2 people came to my author signing yesterday, so I was pretty bummed about it. Especially as 37 people responded “going” to the event. Kind of upset, honestly, and a little embarrassed.
Neil Gaiman : Terry Pratchett and I did a signing in Manhattan for Good Omens that nobody came to at all. So you are two up on us.
Link here, which was in reply to this tweet - but because twitter has apparently busted context in links from offsite, it’s easier to just copy the tweets wholesale here.
A Study in Emerald(PDF WARNING)