"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)

"What is, is, and what might have been could never have existed."
— Edward Gorey (Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey)

"Interviewer: What is your greatest regret?
Gorey: That I don't have one"
— Edward Gorey (Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey)

"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)

"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)

"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 tend to be rather inconsequential and trail off."
— 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)

"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)

"For some reason 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

"On November 18 of alternate years Mr Earbrass begins writing 'his new novel'. Weeks ago he chose its title at random from a list of them he keeps in a little green note-book. It being tea-time of the 17th, he is alarmed not to have thought of a plot to which The Unstrung Harp might apply."
— Edward Gorey (The Unstrung Harp, Or, Mr Earbrass Writes a Novel)

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

"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

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

"Mr. Earbass has rashly been skimming through the early chapters, which he had not looked at for months, and now sees TUH for what it is. Dreadful, dreadful, DREADFUL. He must be mad to go on enduring the unexquisite agony of writing when it all turns out drivel. Mad. Why didn't he become a spy? How does one become one? He will burn the MS. Why is there no fire? Why aren't there the makings of one? How did he get in the unused room on the third floor?"
— Edward Gorey (The Unstrung Harp)

"Z is for Zillah who drank too much gin."
— Edward Gorey

"Books. Cats. Life is good."
— Edward Gorey

"My favorite journey is looking out the window."
— Edward Gorey

"I don't think anything might have been. What is, is."
— Edward Gorey