Edward Gorey > Quotes

“Books. Cats. Life is Good.”
― Edward Gorey

“The helpful thought for which you look
Is written somewhere in a book.”
― Edward Gorey

“I really think I write about everyday life. I don't think I'm quite as odd as others say I am. 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.”
― Edward Gorey

“My mission in life is to make everybody as uneasy as possible. I think we should all be as uneasy as possible, because that's what the world is like.”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“When people are finding meaning in things - beware.”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“A is for Amy who fell down the stairs.
B is for Basil assaulted by bears.
C is for Clara who wasted away.
D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh.
E is for Ernest who choked on a peach.
F is for Fanny sucked dry by a leech.

G is for George smothered under a rug.
H is for Hector done in by a thug.
I is for Ida who drowned in a lake.
J is for James who took lye by mistake.
K is for Kate who was struck with an axe.
L is for Leo who choked on some tacks.

M is for Maud who was swept out to sea.
N is for Neville who died of ennui.
O is for Olive run through with an awl.
P is for Prue trampled flat in a brawl.
Q is for Quentin who sank on a mire.
R is for Rhoda consumed by a fire.

S is for Susan who perished of fits.
T is for Titus who flew into bits.
U is for Una who slipped down a drain.
V is for Victor squashed under a train.
W is for Winnie embedded in ice.
X is for Xerxes devoured by mice.

Y is for Yorick whose head was bashed in.
Z is for Zillah who drank too much gin.”
― Edward Gorey

“I am a person before I am anything else. I never say I am a writer. I never say I am an artist...I am a person who does those things.”
― Edward Gorey

“There are so many things we've been brought up to believe that it takes you an awfully long time to realize that they aren't you.”
― Edward Gorey

“My favorite journey is looking out the window.”
― Edward Gorey

“It's well we cannot hear the screams we make in other people's dreams.”
― Edward Gorey

“What is, is, and what might have been could never have existed.”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“The Suicide, as she is falling,
Illuminated by the moon,
Regrets her act, and finds appalling
The thought she will be dead so soon.”
― Edward Gorey

“Interviewer: What is your greatest regret?
Gorey: That I don't have one”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“There was a young lady named Mae
Who smoked without stopping all day;
As pack followed pack,
Her lungs first turned black,
And eventually rotted away.”
― Edward Gorey, Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer

“If something doesn't creep into a drawing that you're not prepared for, you might as well not have drawn it.”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“Some tiny creature, mad with wrath, is coming nearer on the path.”
― Edward Gorey, The Evil Garden

“I tend to be rather inconsequential and trail off.”
― Edward Gorey

“I've never had any intentions about anything. That's why I am where I am today, which is neither here nor there, in a literal sense.”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“I just got a rather nasty shock. In looking for something or other I came across the fact that one of my cats is about to be nine years old, and that another of them will shortly thereafter be eight; I have been labouring under the delusion they were about five and six. And yesterday I happened to notice in the mirror that while I have long since grown used to my beard being very grey indeed, I was not prepared to discover that my eyebrows are becoming noticeably shaggy. I feel the tomb is just around the corner. And there are all these books I haven't read yet, even if I am simultaneously reading at least twenty...”
― Edward Gorey, Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer

“Explaining something makes it go away, so to speak; what's important is left after you have explained everything else.”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“I don't think anything might have been. What is, is.”
― Edward Gorey

“To take my work seriously would be the height of folly.”
― Edward Gorey

“I don't know what it is I'm doing. But it's not that. Despite all evidence to the contrary.”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“Such excess of passion
is quite out of fashion”
― Edward Gorey, Amphigorey

“I have given up considering happiness as relevant.”
― Edward Gorey

“A small and sinister snow seems to be coming down relentlessly at present. The radio says it is eventually going to be sleet and rain, but I don't think so; I think it is just going to go on and on, coming down, until the whole world...etc. It has that look.”
― Edward Gorey, Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer

“More is happening out there than we are aware of.
It is possibly due to some unknown direful circumstance.”
― Edward Gorey

“Not everything in life can be interpreted metaphorically; that's because things fall out on the way.”
― Edward Gorey

“Each night Father fills me with dread
When he sits on the foot of my bed;
I'd not mind that he speaks
In gibbers and squeaks,
But for seventeen years he's been dead.”
― Edward Gorey, Amphigorey

“All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.”
― Edward Gorey, Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey