63 Quotes by Theodora Goss

Always ask at the pub, Miss Jekyll. Elementary investigation - the pub always knows.

MARY: I don’t think you have dulcet tones. Dulcet means sweet. When are you ever sweet?CATHERINE: My most dulcet tones. I was using the superlative. Everyone has a most something, even if it’s not very much.BEATRICE: I think Catherine can be quite sweet when she wants to.CATHERINE: I just don’t want to very often.

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.

There is modesty, and there is propriety. The former is a natural instinct, given to us when Adam and Eve left the garden and realized their nakedness. The latter is merely a social construct. Although as human beings we wish to consort with our fellows, and therefore yield to their judgments in matters of dress and behavior, surely we may break the rules of propriety when they interfere with the important matters of our lives, so long as modesty is not thereby wounded.

MARY: Catherine! Is it necessary to include such a detail?CATHERINE: Do you expect our readers to believe that we had no bodily needs or functions for entire days at a time?MARY: No, but such things are simply—unstated. They go without saying.CATHERINE: It’s very fashionable now to include realistic details, no matter how unpleasant or improper. Look at the French writers. Look at Émile Zola.MARY: We are not French.

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!

MARY: Renaissance, not medieval. Most of the castle was built during the sixteenth century, although I believe its foundations date from the fourteenth.CATHERINE: And our readers will care why?MARY: You may not care for accuracy, but I do—and Carmilla will, when she reads this book.CATHERINE: If I ever get the damn thing written, with all these interruptions!

Cum mulieribus non est disputandum, as Cicero says.

All right,” said Mary. “When do you want us to leave?”“As soon as Diana changes back into women’s clothes,” said Irene.“Why?” asked Diana, outraged. “I don’t want to.”“Because you’re supposed to be neurasthenic and hysterical. No one will question that diagnosis in a girl going through puberty.”“Puberty yourself!” said Diana, then whispered to Hannah, “That’s a dirty word, isn’t it? I’m pretty sure that’s a dirty word.