Top 40 Theodora Goss Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “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

2. “She would sip an elderflower tisane and he would drink a dark, aromatic espresso.”

— Theodora Goss

3. “Friendship and chocolate cake – they do not heal all ills, but they certainly help.”

— Theodora Goss

4. “If they had pockets! With pockets, women could conquer the world! And.”

— Theodora Goss

5. “I stop listening when academics start mixing their Greek and Latin roots. That never leads anywhere productive.”

— Theodora Goss

6. “The only thing worth thinking about, when I write a story, is whether I like it, whether I want to write it, whether it excites me.”

— Theodora Goss

7. “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

8. “With pockets, women could conquer the world!”

— Theodora Goss

9. “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.”

— Theodora Goss

10. “She knew the truth: that Frankenstein had created a female monster, and that the female monster had escaped. And she hid that truth. Knowing of Justine, she did the best she could, for another woman. She erased her from the story.”

— Theodora Goss

11. “She had wandered the streets of Vienna and Budapest. No wonder she felt different. Perhaps travel did that to you. Mary had come home, but she was not the same Mary who had left – not quite.”

— Theodora Goss

12. “What was the use of propriety when it kept one from getting things done?”

— Theodora Goss

13. “She leaned over and kissed Carmilla, evidently meaning to kiss her cheek, but at the last moment Carmilla turned her head an they kissed each other on the lips. Laura laughed. It startled Mary – what was the relationship between these two women?”

— Theodora Goss

14. “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

15. “But then she put her hands on Mary’s shoulders and kissed both her cheeks. Well, Mary didn’t mind. Irene was the most interesting woman she had ever met. They were not in competition, but if they had been, she would happily have lost to Irene Norton.”

— Theodora Goss

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

— Theodora Goss

17. “A lady might feel fear, but she must not give in to it, or so her governess had taught her.”

— Theodora Goss

18. “Rosy-fingered dawn indeed! This dawn was wearing gray gloves.”

— Theodora Goss

19. “And where do you get off calling yourself practical? You’re a writer.”

— Theodora Goss

20. “The benefit of growing older is that you make different mistakes.”

— Theodora Goss

21. “Fairy tales are another kind of Bible, for those who know how to read them.”

— Theodora Goss

22. “Always ask at the pub, Miss Jekyll. Elementary investigation – the pub always knows.”

— Theodora Goss

23. “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

24. “As far as Catherine was concerned, autumn in England proved that if God did exist, He was an actively malevolent deity.”

— Theodora Goss

25. “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

26. “JUSTINE: Is the story supposed to be jumping around like that, from Mary’s head, to Diana’s, to Beatrice’s?”

— Theodora Goss

27. “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

28. “Your way of not bothering looks exactly like bothering, if you ask me.”

— Theodora Goss

29. “However you feel about maids’ uniforms, we don’t have time to overthrow the social order today.”

— Theodora Goss

30. “One does not have to dress in a way that is unflattering, or even unfashionable, to be rational – and comfortable. How can you expect women to exercise their faculties, nay, their rights, in clothes that confine them? We shall never be men’s equals while we lace ourselves into ill health and drape ourselves in fabric until we can scarcely move. Dress reform is almost as important to our cause as the vote.”

— Theodora Goss

31. “She had longed for adventure, and now that it was happening to her, she was not sure how she felt about it.”

— Theodora Goss

32. “You can’t feel yourself blushing. That’s lady novelist talk.”

— Theodora Goss

33. “Only an idiot would bring an important letter out in the rain.”

— Theodora Goss

34. “Spectacular cases are usually simpler, and less interesting, than they initially appear.”

— Theodora Goss

35. “Was the house being watched? They could not see the Wolf Men, and more importantly, Catherine could not smell them. So taking a chance, they ran up the steps to the front door and rang the bell. It was opened almost at once. “Come in, come in quickly,” said Mrs. Poole. “Poor Miss Frankenstein has killed a man!”

— Theodora Goss

36. “We don’t get into mischief,” said Mary indignantly. “It sort of happens to us, or around us, or in our general vicinity.”

— Theodora Goss

37. “First give them beauty. Then give them darkness.”

— Theodora Goss

38. “My name is Carmilla,” said the woman. “I’ve come from Mina, in Budapest. I think it’s time you were rescued from this place. Don’t you think?”

— Theodora Goss

39. “It’s very confusing, being all of yourself. You’ll find it quite uncomfortable for a while. But you’ll get used to it. We all do.”

— Theodora Goss

40. “She had learned long ago that life was difficult. One had to live it with courage.”

— Theodora Goss

41. “You are all vinegar, my dear Helen. I believe in the judicious application of honey.”

— Theodora Goss

42. “The two girls hurried down the street into the labyrinth of the London night.”

— Theodora Goss