"People who flock to fantasy conventions and signings make up an 'inherently vulnerable community'...."

"... They 'wrap themselves around a beloved text so it becomes their self-identity'.... They want to share their souls with the creators of these works. 'And if you have morality around it, you say "no."'... [I]n my conversations with Gaiman’s old friends, collaborators, and peers, nearly all of them told me that they never imagined that Gaiman’s affairs could have been anything but enthusiastically consensual. As one prominent editor in the field puts it, 'The one thing I hear again and again, largely from women, is "He was always nice to me. He was always a gentleman."' The writer Kelly Link, who met Gaiman at a reading in 1997, recalls finding him charmingly goofy. 'He was hapless in a way that was kind of exasperating,' she says, 'but also made him seem very harmless.' Someone who had a sexual relationship with Gaiman in the aughts recalls him flipping through questions fans wrote on cards at a Q&A session. Once, a fan asked if she could be his 'sex slave': 'He read it aloud and said, "Well, no." He’d be very demure.' But there were some who saw another side of the author....."

From "There Is No Safe Word/How the best-selling fantasy author Neil Gaiman hid the darkest parts of himself for decades" (New York Magazine).

That's a long article, and you are probably blocked by the paywall.  Here's Gaiman's answer (on his website). Here's the NYT article about it, "Neil Gaiman Responds to Explosive Report of Sexual Assault/'I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone,' said the best-selling author in response to allegations in New York magazine":

"But I’m also getting more obsessive about human beings over huge swaths of time. Part of that came out of being on the Isle of Skye..."

"... during the serious U.K. lockdown. On Skye, if there’s a rock somewhere, it’s probably because somebody put it there. I realized that the rock that I was using to keep the lid on my dustbin was a stone that had been dragged around. People have been in this place for thousands and thousands of years, and in this bay I’m living in, they’ve left behind rocks!"

Said Neil Gaiman, quoted in "Neil Gaiman Knows What Happens When You Dream" (NYT).

"Nothing bores me more than to be in New York and have a dinner in a big fancy restaurant, where you have to sit for three fucking hours."

"You know and people will have drinks before, wine after, then three courses, then they want coffee and someone is going to ask for a fucking French press and all the rest of this crap. To me my idea of what’s good is to drive here and go to Waffle House, get a couple of eggs and waffle. When I see the first Waffle House, I know I’m in the South. That’s good."

Stephen King, talking to Neil Gaiman. Lots of nice stuff here. (Via Metafilter.)

Free speech and references to killing... on posters at the University of Wisconsin—Stout.

Via Instapundit.

"Q. How can I get Neil Gaiman to make an appearance at my school/convention/event?"

Answer:

Contact Lisa Bransdorf at the Greater Talent Network. Tell her you want Neil to appear somewhere. Have her tell you how much it costs. Have her say it again in case you misheard it the first time. Tell her you could get Bill Clinton for that money. Have her tell you that you couldn't even get ten minutes of Bill Clinton for that money but it's true, he's not cheap.

On the other hand, I'm really busy, and I ought to be writing, so pricing appearances somewhere between ridiculously high and obscenely high helps to discourage most of the people who want me to come and talk to them. Which I could make a full time profession, if I didn't say 'no' a lot.

The fee is $45,000.

Neil Gaiman is...
	a douchebag.
	an artist.
	a rational participant in economic reality.
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