About this quote

Gaiman's line strips away polite euphemisms and forces a plain fact: life ends. The phrase can land as bleak, and that honesty can hurt. Still, the shock can be useful; it exposes where you waste time and energy. Shift one small thing. Call someone you've been putting off or book that overdue checkup.

When to use it

• At my father's funeral: someone laughed and quoted it, and I stopped putting off apologies — I drove to my sister's house that night.
• Before a routine checkup: the line made me grin and then actually book the screening I'd been dodging for months.
• After a sudden layoff: I thought of the quote and used the severance to finish the freelance work I kept delaying.
• When sorting my finances after a breakup: I muttered the line, then organized my accounts and updated beneficiaries.