Quote

I'm working on a poetry collection for Papaveria Press . It fills me with trepidation - poetry is something I'm much more self-conscious about than prose.

Theodora Goss

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Theodora Goss
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: September 30
Novelist
Writer
Buda Pest
Something
Prose
Presses
Press
Conscious
Poetry
Trepidation
Working
Fills
Self
Collection
Much
Collections

More quotes by Theodora Goss

Image
When we tell stories about things that are important - love, fear, beauty - we change the way people think about the world. Writers are, or should be, truth-tellers even when the stories themselves are fantasy.
Theodora Goss
Image
The book[ The Thorn and The Blossom] is a love story about two people, Brendan and Evelyn, who meet in a small town in Cornwall where Evelyn has gone on vacation and Brendan is working in his father's bookstore. The story is told from both perspectives, Brendan's and Evelyn's.
Theodora Goss
Image
I talked on my blog recently about uncommon sense. Common sense is called common because it reflects cultural consensus. It's common sense to get a good job and save for retirement. But I think we all also have an uncommon sense, an individual voice that tells us what we're meant to do.
Theodora Goss
Image
If you look at the natural world, really look at it, it's always magical.
Theodora Goss
Image
Writing is an art like other arts. Dancers don't dance every once in a while. Musicians don't stop practicing. They are dedicated to what they do.
Theodora Goss
Image
I co-edited an anthology called Interfictions with Delia Sherman and wrote a short scholarly book on three women poets called Voices from Fairyland: The Fantastical Poems of Mary Coleridge, Charlotte Mew, and Sylvia Townsend Warner. So I've been busy, but I haven't had time to write a novel.
Theodora Goss
Image
That sort of effort has to come not only from the writer but also from a really innovative publisher like Quirk.
Theodora Goss
Image
Jorge Luis Borges wrote a poem when he was in his 80s about one day writing the book that would justify him. This was long after he had become one of the great masters, a writer everyone looks up to and reveres. As artists, I don't think we ever see ourselves as done. We always think we're at the beginning . . .
Theodora Goss
Image
I put that part of myself into both Brendan and Evelyn [from The Thorn and the Blossom] - as well as some of my own anxieties about the academic life!
Theodora Goss
Image
Understanding what is going on in the world today inspires me in a negative sense because there's so much about it that I don't like - political stupidity, environmental degradation, etc. And that makes me want to change it, to make a difference in the world.
Theodora Goss
Image
I had a short story collection come out in 2006, and then I couldn't work on large projects for a long time because I was finishing my doctoral degree.
Theodora Goss
Image
Believe in the importance of your art.
Theodora Goss
Image
I worry very much that people won't like it, or will think it's simply silly. But I have a post-it note above my desk that says What would you do if you weren't afraid? And if I weren't afraid, I would do a poetry collection.
Theodora Goss
Image
I think part of my purpose in this life is to talk about magic, and to make it.
Theodora Goss
Image
I've heard some readers saying they wished the story was longer, and I completely understand that desire - we all like to sink into a nice, long novel.
Theodora Goss
Image
Of course, with Papaveria Press, you know the book itself is going to be beautiful.
Theodora Goss
Image
It's very difficult to put in the work unless you believe that what you're doing is significant in some way.
Theodora Goss
Image
What writers do - everything comes from inside, from experiences of the world that we have digested. And then we turn it into silk, or stories.
Theodora Goss
Image
I would tell myself to get more sleep! Believe it or not, I wrote the book while finishing my PhD in English literature. It was wonderful to get away from doing literary scholarship by writing this mythical love story. I think so much of my own love for books and scholarship comes through in The Thorn and the Blossom.
Theodora Goss
Image
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