"So what are you? God? Or the Devil?"
"I'm just Boss Smiley. I run your world."
"So that girl was right. You're not the watchmaker."
"If only."
Prez Rickard and Boss Smiley, in SANDMAN #54: "The Golden Boy"
Firstly, earth burial or interment. Variants are boxed, wrapped or naked, embalmed or otherwise; lying, seated or standing; grave, sepulchre, vault or cairn.
Part one of Petrefax's answer, in SANDMAN #55: "Cerements"
Secondly, disposal through fire. Variants: clothed, boxed, pyre, vessel, or ship. Also there are different procedures that can be adopted to dispose of the ashes.
Part two of Petrefax's answer, in SANDMAN #55: "Cerements"
Thirdly: mummification. Variants: salting, mineral baths, dehydration. There's the thing with pitch and bitumen and...
Part three of Petrefax's answer, in SANDMAN #55: "Cerements"
Fourthly, disposal through water. Variants include feeding to water animals or fish; disposal in sacred river or sea, boxing, bagging with rocks, dismemberment...
Part four of Petrefax's answer, in SANDMAN #55: "Cerements"
Fifth... Air burial, sir. Variants include dismemberment and otherwise; ingestion by raptors or scavengers; complete or partial disposal.
Part five of Petrefax's answer, in SANDMAN #55: "Cerements"
It is a fearful thing to be haunted by those who loved us once. It is a fearful thing to haunt those one loves.
Destruction orates about death (small 'd'), in SANDMAN #55: "Cerements"
We were here before any other city that now stands. And we will sing the funeral songs that are sung for cities for them when they die.
The role of the Necropolis Litharge, in SANDMAN #55: "Cerements"
And then she found herself in a huge room, somewhere beneath the city. There were six silver cerements hanging in that room, shining in the darkness; and a huge book, locked closed, on a lectern. And a voice said to her: "WHICH OF THEM IS DEAD?"
Young Mistress Veltis makes a discovery, in SANDMAN #55: "Cerements"
"We're all dead. That's why we're here."
"Young man. If you were dead, I think I would know it. I have some experience in these matters."
Brant Tucker and Master Klaproth, in SANDMAN #55: "Cerements"
I think that the Cluracan has had enough. I know he prides himself on his capacity for alcohol, but there's a thin line between intoxication and unconsciousness, and he's just about to cross it.
The innkeeper, in SANDMAN #56: "World's End"
When a world ends, there's always something left over. A story, perhaps, or a vision, or a hope. This inn is a refuge, after the lights go out. For a while.
The innkeeper, in SANDMAN #56: "World's End"
It is, however, a difficult hypothesis to test empirically. This is only the second of these storms in my lifetime, and we centaurs consider ourselves a long-lived folk indeed.
Chiron, in SANDMAN #56: "World's End"
So, like everyone else, I was staring out of one of the windows of the inn at the end of the words.
Worlds. I meant worlds.
Brant Tucker, in SANDMAN #56: "World's End"
The words said over my father's body were hollow and dumb, and I couldn't find it in me to cry, not then. I knew I was watching the real thing here. There was true grief in each step they took across the sky, and they shouldered the casket as if they were shouldering the weight of the world.
Brant Tucker, in SANDMAN #56: "World's End"
She looked at me. Maybe she was trying to tell me something; I don't know. She probably didn't even know I was there. But I'll always love her. All my life.
Brant Tucker sees Death, in SANDMAN #56: "World's End"
But it was like I knew her. Like she was my oldest, dearest friend. The kind of person you can tell anything to, no matter how bad, and they'll still love you, because they know you.
Brant Tucker sees Death, in SANDMAN #56: "World's End"
"Hey. Thanks for listening. I suppose you must think I'm crazy."
"No. I don't. Maybe I ought to. But I don't. You hear a lot of weird stories behind a bar."
Brant Tucker and the bartender, in SANDMAN #56: "World's End"
There's a moment of fear in the returning to sleep. A hesitation: there are darknesses beyond the curtain of waking, and the shadow-plays clutch at my heart... Too late. I'm gone.
The unnamed dreamer, in SANDMAN: "The Castle"
Get your head outta the clouds! Not you, kiddo. I was talking to Tiny. He gets his head in the clouds, he'll be sneezing for days.
Mervyn Pumpkinhead, in SANDMAN: "The Castle"
I'm Matthew. I'm the raven. Not a raven -- the raven. That's one of the weird things about the Dreaming -- it's a kind of one-raven-at-a-time sort of place.
Matthew introduces himself, in SANDMAN: "The Castle"
Can't say I've ever been too fond of beginnings, myself. Messy little things. Give me a good ending any time. You know where you are with an ending.
The eldest of the three Fates, in SANDMAN #57: "The Kindly Ones:1"
Why, that's what I like about making things for people. You can start off in Birmingham and finish in, well, Tanganyika or somewhere.
The middle of the three Fates, in SANDMAN #57: "The Kindly Ones:1"
It's never what they want, and if we give them what they think they want, they like it less than ever. "I never thought it would be like this." "Why can't it be like the one I had before?" I don't know why we bother.
The eldest of the three Fates, in SANDMAN #57: "The Kindly Ones:1"
We bother because we have no choice. Because that is what we are, in this aspect.
The youngest of the three Fates, in SANDMAN #57: "The Kindly Ones:1"
There are no gryphons, no wyverns, no winged horses in the waking world, raven. Not anymore. But we are here...
The gryphon at the door, in SANDMAN #57: "The Kindly Ones:1"
"Mervyn, build an ocean over here, knock down that city under the willow tree over there, and incidentally, Mervyn, this time remember that ice is customarily cold." Like I don't have enough to do.
Mervyn complains about his boss Dream, in SANDMAN #57: "The Kindly Ones:1"
"Whatcha reading?"
"An unwritten play by John Webster. A Banquet for the Wormes."
"Any good?"
"Yes. Very good. 'Webster was much possessed by death and saw the skull beneath the skin.' He did, you know, he really did."
"Yeah? You mean like he had some sort of X-ray vision?"
"No, nothing like that."
Matthew and Lucien, in SANDMAN #57: "The Kindly Ones:1"
"Lucien? Were you ever alive?"
"I don't think so, no."
"You don't think so?"
"I can remember the title, author, and location of every book in this library, Matthew. Every book that's ever been dreamed. Every book that's ever been imagined. Every book that's ever been lost. Millions upon millions of them. That's what I remember. It's my job. Other things... I forget sometimes."
Matthew and Lucien, in SANDMAN #57: "The Kindly Ones:1"
Imagine that you woke in the night and rose, and seemed to see before you another person, whom slowly you perceived to be yourself. Someone had entered in the night and placed a mirror in your sleeping place, made from a black metal. You had been frightened only of your reflection. But then the reflection slowly raised one hand, while your own hand stayed still...
A dark mirror... That was always the intention...
Dream explains the Corinthian, in SANDMAN #57: "The Kindly Ones:1"