Quotes from Edward Gorey

I suppose it was obvious that The Loathsome Couple was based on the Moors Murders, which disturbed me very greatly for some reason.

He presented it with a length of string and passed on to the statue of Corrupted Endeavor to await the arrival of Autumn.

The Baron told her that only art meant anything.

There was a young woman whose stammer Was atrocious, and so was her grammar, But they were not improved When her husband was moved To knock out her teeth with a hammer.

He wrote it all down Zealously.

when I talk to people I really like to talk to them, and not just exchange pleasantries and wonder which of us is going to try to get away first. Most social occasions leave me less than enthralled.

Mr Earbrass escaped from Messrs Scuffle and Dustcough, who were most anxious to go into all the ramifications of a scheme for having his novels translated into Urdu, and went to call on a distant cousin.

You never really choose anything. It's all presented to you, and then you have alternatives.

I realize that homosexuality is a serious problem for anyone who is—but then, of course, heterosexuality is a serious problem for anyone who is, too. And being a man is a serious problem and being a woman is, too. Lots of things are problems.

I thought it was going to be different; It turned out to be(,) just the same.

On the way home I absently minded (you know what I mean) went through a stop sign in Hyannis so of course there was a police car to apprehend me. A soft answer turnethed away wrath, fortunately.

I tend to think life is pastiche: I'm not sure what it's a pastiche of - we haven't found out yet.

As someone once said, originality is not taking from somebody else. It's when nobody can take it from you and repeat it.

Life is intrinsically, well, boring and dangerous at the same time. At any given moment the floor may open up. Of course, it almost never does; that's what makes it so boring.

More and more, I think you should have no expectations and do everything for its own sake. That way you won't be hit in the head quite so frequently.

How elegant! how choice! how gay! To think one doesn't have to pay. There is sound of falling tears; It comes from nowhere to the ears. Some tiny creature, filled with wrath, Is coming nearer on the path.

Indoor cats don't lose their wildness, which is one reason I am so fascinated by them. They seem to retain all their jungly qualities no matter what.

he details everything around the beauty and excitement, which is enough to evoke it again for each of us, in the mind's eye, the gut, the secret heart, or wherever one's most vivid, passionate, lyric, and lavender images are stored. - Tobi Tobias, Balletgorey

We spend all our lives trying to avoid reality in one way or another. I've always had a rather strong sense of unreality. I feel other people exist in a way I don't.

I do like rocks. I had a terrible trauma this week: I didn't know what had become of my favorite rock. And I thought, Oh my God, I can't live. Fortunately, it was found.

I look like a real person, but underneath I am not real at all. It's just a fake persona. That's why cats are so wonderful. They can't talk. They have these mysterious lives that are only half-connected to you. We have no idea what goes on in their tiny minds.

A situation comes up, and either you do this or that, or maybe a third alternative comes up. But you simply do not choose. You never really choose anything. It's all presented to you, and then you have alternatives.

I do remember with great pleasure, if not terribly clearly, a play by Richard Foreman with music by Stanley Silverman called Hotel For Criminals, which I saw in a sinisterly suitable mansion in the cultured wilds of western Massachusetts in the summer of 1974, and which could be described as based loosely on Fantomas.

The sky has grown completely black, It's time to think of turning back. Fall down, or scream, or rush about- There is no way of getting out.