I wrote my way out of it, though. I got desperate (that's another flip and true answer I give to the where-do-you-get-your- ideas question. "Desperation." It's up there with "Boredom" and "Deadlines". All these answers are true to a point.) and took my own terror, and the core idea, and crafted a story called Calliope, which explains, I think pretty definitively, where writers get their ideas from. It's in a book calledDREAM COUNTRY . You can read it if you like. And, somewhere in the writing of that story, I stopped being scared of the ideas going away.

Where do I get my ideas from?

I make them up.

Out of my head.

2005 Neil Gaiman.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR NEIL GAIMANis the critically acclaimed and award-winning creator of the Sandman series of graphic novels, and author of the novelsAmerican Gods ,Neverwhere ,Stardust , andCoraline ; the short fiction collectionSmoke and Mirrors ; and theNew York Times bestselling children's booksThe Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish andThe Wolves in the Walls (both illustrated by Dave McKean). His most recent book, written with and illustrated by Dave McKean, isMirrorMask: The Illustrated Film Script of the Motion Picture from The Jim Henson Company . Originally from England, Gaiman now lives in the United States.

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