Joel Cunningham: This might be internet lore, but I remember reading somewhere that Diana Wynne Jones put you in one of her books.
Neil Gaiman : I’m in Deep Secret as Nick. The scene that Nick eats the breakfast twice is something that Diana and Mary Gentle did to me to amuse themselves one breakfast.
JC: Because you were just that out of it?
NG: I was at a writers’ conference, Milford, this sort of writers’ thing. You had to get up for breakfast because if you didn’t, there was no food until one o’clock when lunch was served. I was fine the first few days, but by Thursday I was getting up in my sleep, going in, and eating these incredibly—
MA: Sleep-eating?
NG: It was, and they were horrible. These greasy, fried eggs that came out in trays. Apparently I would sit there mechanically eating my breakfast and I [one day] finished and Diana and Mary—Mary hadn’t wanted her breakfast because it was so horrible, so she put it in front of me and I carried on eating. And apparently halfway through, I looked up very puzzled and I said, “I’ve eaten this breakfast before and I didn’t like it the first time.”
MA: A horrible déjà vu.
Neil Gaiman is a remarkably affable fellow. Even a few minutes after finishing signing several hundred books, even several minutes before he