Quote

Delia Sherman once told me that you never learn to write a story. You only learn to write the story you are currently writing. You have to learn how to write the next story all over again. And she's absolutely right.

Theodora Goss

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Theodora Goss
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: September 30
Novelist
Writer
Buda Pest
Next
Delia
Stories
Sherman
Right
Currently
Writing
Absolutely
Never
Told
Story
Learn
Write

More quotes by Theodora Goss

Image
I actually pushed the boundaries on how long a book like this [The Thorn and the Blossom] can be. The original plan called for two 7,500 word stories, and I turned in two 10,000 word stories.
Theodora Goss
Image
Nature inspires me continually. Today, I can look out my window and see the entire world covered with snow. It's like Narnia under the White Witch.
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 appeal of writing a romance was that I'd never written one before the The Thorn and The Blossom.
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
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 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
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
The book itself [The Thorn and The Blossom] is bound accordion-style: it has no spine, so it can open in either direction, and it's in a slipcase.
Theodora Goss
Image
Of course, with Papaveria Press, you know the book itself is going to be beautiful.
Theodora Goss
Image
If you believe you have a voice and something to say, chances are you do, and the world needs you to do whatever you're drawn to do. So you should do it.
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
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
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
If you look at the natural world, really look at it, it's always magical.
Theodora Goss
Image
It's appropriate to have magic in a love story, because magic is a sort of metaphor for what love feels like? When we fall in love, the world feels magical to us. It becomes an enchanted place.
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
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
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
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