This is the theory… that anything that is art… is presumably about some certain thing, but is really always about something else, and it’s no good having one without the other, because if you just have the something it is boring and if you just have the something else it’s irritating.

Edward Gorey

Categorized in : Art Theory Boring

Books, Cats, Life is Good.

Edward Gorey

life-is-good cat book

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

realizing long believe

It's well we cannot hear the screams we make in other people's dreams.

Edward Gorey

scream dream people

Some tiny creature, mad with wrath, is coming nearer on the path.

Edward Gorey

tiny mad wrath

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

life-is world thinking

If something doesn't creep into a drawing that you're not prepared for, you might as well not have drawn it.

Edward Gorey

creeps drawing might

Neither mine nor other people's prospects seem particularly pleasing just at the moment, and I have fantasies of going to Iceland, never to return. As it is, I tell myself not to remember the past, not to hope or fear for the future, and not to think in the present, a comprehensive program that will undoubtedly have very little success.

Edward Gorey

iceland past thinking

All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.... You can describe all the externals of a performance - everything, in fact, but what really constitutes its core. Explaining something makes it go away, so to speak; what's important is what's left over after you've explained everything else.

Edward Gorey

going-away important facts

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

boredom writing thinking

The helpful thought for which you look Is written somewhere in a book.

Edward Gorey

helpful book looks

When people are finding meaning in things -- beware.

Edward Gorey

findings people

God knows, there's enough to worry about without worrying about worrying about things.

Edward Gorey

god-knows enough worry

My favorite journey is looking out the window.

Edward Gorey

my-favorite journey window

I should like a parsley sandwich. To the best of my knowledge they are not in season.

Edward Gorey

parsley sandwiches should

More is happening out there than we are aware of. It is possibly due to some unknown direful circumstance.

Edward Gorey

happenings dues circumstances

If you're doing nonsense it has to be rather awful, because there'd be no point. I'm trying to think if there's sunny nonsense. Sunny, funny nonsense for children — oh, how boring, boring, boring. As Schubert said, there is no happy music. And that's true, there really isn't. And there's probably no happy nonsense, either.

Edward Gorey

trying children thinking

I don't think anything might have been. What is, is.

Edward Gorey

might-have-been might thinking

I have given up considering happiness as relevant.

Edward Gorey

considering relevant given

What is, is, and what might have been could never have existed.

Edward Gorey

might-have-been has-beens might

Such excess of passion is quite out of fashion

Edward Gorey

excess passion fashion