Theodora Goss > Quotes

“No wonder men did not want women to wear bloomers. What could women accomplish if they did not have to continually mind their skirts, keep them from dragging in the mud or getting trampled on the steps of an omnibus? If they had pockets! With pockets, women could conquer the world!”
― Theodora Goss, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

“I will tell you, too, that every fairy tale has a moral. The moral of my story may be that love is a constraint, as strong as any belt. And this is certainly true, which makes it a good moral. Or it may be that we are all constrained in some way, either in our bodies, or in our hearts or minds, an Empress as well as the woman who does her laundry. ... Perhaps it is that a shoemaker's daughter can bear restraint less easily than an aristocrat, that what he can bear for three years she can endure only for three days. ... Or perhaps my moral is that our desire for freedom is stronger than love or pity. That is a wicked moral, or so the Church has taught us. But I do not know which moral is the correct one. And that is also the way of a fairy tale.”
― Theodora Goss, In the Forest of Forgetting

“It occurred to me that there have always been selkie women: women who did not seem to belong to this world, because they did not fit into prevailing notions of what women were supposed to be. And if you did not fit into those notions, in some sense you weren't a woman. Weren't even quite human. The magical animal woman is, or can be, a metaphor for those sorts of women.”
― Theodora Goss

“For the first time, Mary understood the attraction of coffee. If you have been up all night, escaping from a burning mental asylum or fighting men who refuse to die when you shoot them in the forehead, or both, coffee is the perfect beverage.”
― Theodora Goss, European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman

“She had longed for adventure, and now that it was happening to her, she was not sure how she felt about it.”
― Theodora Goss, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

“If they had pockets! With pockets, women could conquer the world! And”
― Theodora Goss, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

“Accept criticism. If you do not offer your work for criticism and accept that criticism, meaning give it serious thought and attention, then you will never improve.”
― Theodora Goss

“I think there is a certain age, for women, when you become fearless. It may be a different age for every woman, I don’t know. It’s not that you stop fearing things: I’m still afraid of heights, for example. Or rather, of falling — heights aren’t the problem. But you stop fearing life itself. It’s when you become fearless in that way that you decide to live.

Perhaps it’s when you come to the realization that the point of life isn’t to be rich, or secure, or even to be loved — to be any of the things that people usually think is the point. The point of life is to live as deeply as possible, to experience fully. And that can be done in so many ways."

(From her blog post "Fearless Women")”
― Theodora Goss

“Write all the time. I believe in writing every day, at least a thousand words a day. We have a strange idea about writing: that it can be done, and done well, without a great deal of effort. Dancers practice every day, musicians practice every day, even when they are at the peak of their careers – especially then. Somehow, we don’t take writing as seriously. But writing – writing wonderfully – takes just as much dedication.”
― Theodora Goss

“I think part of my purpose in this life is to talk about magic, and to make it.”
― Theodora Goss

“If you’re a writer, your first duty, a duty you owe to yourself and your readers, and to your writing itself, is to become wonderful. To become the best writer you can possibly be.”
― Theodora Goss

“Fairy tales are another kind of Bible, for those who know how to read them.”
― Theodora Goss, Red as Blood and White as Bone

“Do not dismiss what you do not understand,”
― Theodora Goss, European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman

“Beatrice closed her eyes and dreamed whatever flowers dream.

Beatrice: That's very poetic, but they don't dream anything. Flowers have no cerebral cortex.”
― Theodora Goss, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

“Friendship and chocolate cake—they do not heal all ills, but they certainly help.”
― Theodora Goss, The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl

“With pockets, women could conquer the world!”
― Theodora Goss, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

“Always ask at the pub, Miss Jekyll. Elementary investigation - the pub always knows.”
― Theodora Goss, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

“A lady might feel fear, but she must not give in to it, or so her governess had taught her.”
― Theodora Goss, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

“Read a lot. But read as a writer, to see how other writers are doing it. And make your knowledge of literature in English as deep and broad as you can. In workshops, writers are often told to read what is being written now, but if that is all you read, you are limiting yourself. You need to get a good overall sense of English literary history, so you can write out of that knowledge.”
― Theodora Goss

“Learn as much as you can. Take every opportunity to learn about writing, whether it’s through classes, workshops, whatever is available to you. This may be difficult, because things like classes, workshops, writing programs, require time and money. But I say this honestly and somewhat harshly – if you’re not willing to prioritize your writing, perhaps you should do something else?”
― Theodora Goss

“You can't feel yourself blushing. That's lady novelist talk.”
― Theodora Goss, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

“Spectacular cases are usually simpler, and less interesting, than they initially appear.”
― Theodora Goss, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

“CATHERINE: I can’t write from Diana’s point of view.

MARY: Of course you can. You’re a writer; you can write anything. Just find your inner Diana.

CATHERINE: I don’t have an inner Diana.

DIANA: Ha! You wish. Everyone has an inner Diana.”
― Theodora Goss, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

“DIANA: Well, how was I supposed to know that?
MARY: Maybe because we mentioned it over and over again?
DIANA: You’re assuming that I listen.”
― Theodora Goss, European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman

“Only an idiot would bring an important letter out in the rain.”
― Theodora Goss, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

“BEATRICE: Do you truly not know who he was? Mr. Dorian Gray, the lover of Mr. Oscar Wilde, who was sent to Reading Gaol for—well, for holding opinions that society does not approve of! For believing in beauty, and art, and love. What guilt and remorse he must feel, for causing the downfall of the greatest playwright of the age! It was Mr. Gray’s dissolute parties, the antics of his hedonistic friends, that exposed Mr. Wilde to scandal and opprobrium. No wonder he has fallen prey to the narcotic.

MARY: Or he could just like opium. He didn’t seem particularly remorseful, Bea.

JUSTINE: Mr. Gray is not what society deems him to be. He has been greatly misunderstood. He assures me that he had no intention of harming Mr. Wilde.

MARY: He would say that.

CATHERINE: Can we not discuss the Wilde scandal in the middle of my book? You’re going to get it banned in Boston, and such other puritanical places.”
― Theodora Goss, The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl

“What was the use of propriety when it kept one from getting things done?”
― Theodora Goss, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

“I stop listening when academics start mixing their Greek and Latin roots. That never leads anywhere productive.”
― Theodora Goss, European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman

“She drifted, feather-like, in tenuous radiance…

Her gown, it seemed a thing made out of mist,
As though the dewy air
Had gathered in a cloud about her form
To clothe a shape so fair
That nothing coarser could adorn it than
A layer of atmosphere.”
― Theodora Goss, Songs for Ophelia

“Ah, well, when you explain it like that, it seems obvious," said Mudge. "Of course, it always seems obvious once it's been explained.”
― Theodora Goss, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter