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Gothic Quotes

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Gothic Quotes

“I’m trying to be an adult. I’m trying to be responsible. I’m trying not to call home crying. But it’s hard. It’s hard when every morning feels like a hangover. It’s hard when I hear voices every time I go to sleep. It’s hard when the only thing that would make me feel better is to crawl in bed with the one person who truly knows me, but I’m more afraid of her than the bears or the perverts or whoever the hell visits her when I’m away.”

Growing UpMadnessComing Of AgeTwinsSistersDark RomanceGothicCreepySuspense Quotes
Book:Fallout Dreams
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“I always am in a role, lovely – for you, for them – even for myself. Yeah... Even when I’m alone, I am still in a role – and I myself am the most exacting audience I have ever had.”

PlayFeelingsRomanceStrongActingEmotionAudienceStrengthEmotionalDramaDemandWeaknessRomanticLonelyWeakTheaterYoung AdultTheatreAloneSuspenseFakeDramaticMaskControlHidingPretendingForbiddenGothicFeelSelf ImageAlwaysPostmodernismHidePretendActorGothMasksPostmodernGothic RomanceActressDemandingEmotionlessForbidSternYoung Adult Gothic RomanceExactExactingFeelless
Book:Nightmarish Sacrifice
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“It may even be that, as you look more closely, to recognize the hidden seed which, born of a secret union, grows into a luxuriant plant and spreads forth into a thousand tendrils, until a single blossom, swelling to maturity, absorbs all the life-sap and kills the seed itself. [...] I came to feel that what we call simply dream and imagination might represent the secret thread that runs through our lives and links its varied facets; and that the man who thinks that, because he has perceived this, he has acquired the power to break the thread and challenge that mysterious force which rules us, is to be given up as lost.”

ImaginationGothic
Book:The Devil's Elixirs
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“Picking me up, Frank carries me like they do in the movies to the back of the loft, pushing aside a gauzy scrim on rollers to reveal a king-size bed with Gothic-looking wooden posts jutting out from each corner. This is not the innocent white-sun-dappled bed of my dorm room fantasy. The sheets and duvet are a manly gray, and those posts recall certain scenes in Dracula and Wuthering Heights. Placing me on top of it, he pulls of his sweatshirt, revealing his pale, hairless chest. His disheveled hair hangs limply above his shoulders. He looks a little Klaus Kinski-ish- in need of blood, yet sexy, vulnerable, yet ready to please.”

DarkRomanticGothic
Book:Girl Cook: A Novel
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“So the baby was carried in a small deal box, under an ancient woman's shawl, to the churchyard that night, and buried by lantern-light, at the cost of a shilling and a pint of beer to the sexton, in that shabby corner of God's allotment where He lets the nettles grow, and where all unbaptized infants, notorious drunkards, suicides, and others of the conjecturally damned are laid.”

RomanticGothicVictorian
Book:Tess of the D’Urbervilles
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“The marine underworld stretched below the ship and embodied many secrets. The disappearance of Olga had become one of the mysteries that would remain with Stefania and her family. The disappearance of her baby sister and sudden departure from her home had taught the ten-year-old that life was filled with uncertainties. But she was willing to forget that for a little while. She jumped down from the barrel and headed toward Liam, Felix, and the other shipmates. They would sing shanties and talk of the constellations, the sea, its creatures, and the legends. It would get her through another night. La Suerte was the only stability for her passengers with the infinite unknown all around them. The waters of the sea, the world below the surface, and the sky that stretched beyond the horizon was a representation of the limitless possibilites and dangers awaiting those aboard.”

HorrorRomanticRomantic SuspenseGothicHorror FantasyGothic RomanceGothic FictionHorror Romance
Book:Descent
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“Even I don’t know myself... In fact, I don’t know if I really have a self at all, as I’m constantly playing different roles and pretending – not so much on stage as in real life...”

LoveLifeDifferentSelfPlayRealityRomanceUnderstandingRelationshipsActingKnowledgeRolesRelationshipAwarenessIdentityLivingRomanticSelf AwarenessCrisisYoung AdultReal LifeSuspenseMaskLiveKnow YourselfGothicFactUnderstandKnowSelf ImagePostmodernismHideHiddenActorGothAwareMasksPostmodernPlayingGothic RomanceRoleEvenYoung Adult Gothic RomanceSelf Identity CrisisKnow Myself
Book:Nightmarish Sacrifice
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“So, apart from casting runes, what other hobbies do you have? Forbidden rituals, human sacrifices, torturing? –”

TruthRomanceDeathGirlMagicSacrificeMysteryDangerousDangerDivineFutureHumanRomanticFortuneAncientYoung AdultMysteriousSuspenseTortureRitualWitchDeadLieTormentForbiddenMagicianGothicMedievalStraightforwardOccultYoung Adult RomanceProvocativeSinisterRiteBoyHauntedGothOminousPredictionFlirtGothic RomanceSacrificesOccultismHauntWiccaFortune TellingRunesDivinationFortune TellerPredictProvokeRuneForbidDruidYoung Adult Gothic RomanceTormentingTormentorTorturingCasting RunesCast RunesTell The Fortune
Book:Nightmarish Sacrifice
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“And I wasn’t playing a role – I was trying to be myself. But the harder I was striving, the more I was realizing that I had probably lost that ‘myself’ somewhere between two perfectly performed roles...”

TryingRealPlayRealityRomanceLostPerfectSecretRolesMysteryIdentityRomanticPerfectionLonelyWho You AreStriveYoung AdultWho I AmObsessionMysteriousSuspenseMaskBe YourselfPretendingYourselfGothicObsessiveLoseTryPostmodernismHidePretendHiddenGothRealizeMasksSecretiveMyselfPostmodernGothic RomanceRoleCardewFreyaYoung Adult Gothic RomanceMaskedYoung Adult Suspense
Book:Nightmarish Sacrifice
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“The utter unbroken silence was more appalling than any ominous noise, than the loudest yells of anguish, than the most piercing screaming... Dead silence. Literally dead.”

PainRomanceDeathSilenceMysteryQuietRomanticSilentCalmYoung AdultPainfulNoiseMysteriousSuspenseAtmosphereLoudDeadAnguishCalmnessGothicLiteralSereneTranquilSinisterUnbrokenGothGothic RomanceAtmosphericAppealingYellAppallingLiterallyNoiselessOnimous
Book:Nightmarish Sacrifice
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“The unknown grayish mystifying forest was benumbed into frost-covered cold, and the tremendous pines towering above the dark marshy soil resembled a gathering of severe mute brothers from a forbidden ancient order worshiping forgotten gods no one had ever heard of outside of the world of secret occult visions.”

WorldLoveGodDreamRomanceOrderDarkSecretSilenceVisionDarknessHeardSacrificeMysteryTreeLandBrotherColdWorshipRomanticSilentAncientYoung AdultMythMythologyGhostMysteriousAtmosphereNightmareGrayRitualSecretsBrotherhoodSevereGreyGodsTreesForbiddenDeitiesGothicForestNumbOccultFrostUnknownMuteSinisterVisionsRiteBrothersHauntedColdnessGothSecretiveOminousGothic RomanceAtmosphericOccultismHauntDeityRealmTowerForbidNightmarishPineTremendousResembleMystifyMystifyingNoiselessBenumbed
Book:Nightmarish Sacrifice
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“Strength and victory... What he would never praise himself for, but whose loss was his most obsessive fear.”

LoveRomanceGirlStrongFearRelationshipsDarkLossFictionRelationshipMysteryStrengthFailureVictoryHorrorRomanticFemaleAppreciatePraiseOneselfScaredScaryAccomplishObsessionMysteriousManWomanObsessedLovingWinGothicFailFearsObsessiveAfraidLoseYoung Adult RomanceMaleLovedBoyGothMyselfGothic RomanceHorrifiedYoung Adult Gothic RomanceCompulsive
Book:Nightmarish Sacrifice
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“The desperate piercing scream of horror echoed far above the sharpened tops of the trees wrapped in thin obsidian-transparent mist, and I startled jerkily, tripping again, and almost collapsed onto the cold moist ground.”

RomanceMysteryColdHorrorDespairRomanticYoung AdultMysteriousSuspenseDesperateScreamTransparentIntroductionGothicMistFirstColdnessGothFarGroundEchoGothic RomanceObsidianAboveIntroWhat To ReadIntroductory
Book:Nightmarish Sacrifice
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“His breathing was heavy, and full of life. He shivered still, his hand finding Katty unsteady and unprepared of what was going to come next. “I hurt you!” Nico said, his voice raised with worry. “No, not at all, honey, my sweetest Master, but you have me, all of me, the wholeness of me and my darkness.” “You play with the devil dear.” Nico sombered. “No.” Katty defiantly said. “You took my blood and it made me your slave, yet I love every minute of it.” “Tell me you love me Katty.” He said, nearing her closer than close, mending the space between them with the threads of courage. “Tell me you have no fear, nor no weakness against me. Or no shame in loving me.” “I fear you not, my love.” Katty sincerely committed. “I fear only that you will be taken away by the hands of the vampire hunter, and only then, will I fall.”

LoveDarkRomanticVampireKissVampiresHalloweenGothic
Author:Keira D. Skye
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“The Scavenger's Ledger by Stewart Stafford The scratch of a nib on paper Tells me I am alive, I think. At this Heaven/Hell midpoint— A torn throat for a poison drink. The horizon lit up again tonight, Rebels fight for futile freedom, Happiness, a cold, distant stranger, No gifted transfusion to bleed him. Willingly failing the audition of life, Food appears to have lost all taste, A numb tongue or cheap ingredients, I cannot let one crumb go to waste. They’ve finally cured me of love, Stripped every vestige of me away, Carrying my grave upon my back, Their snail slithers from day to day. © 2026, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

PhilosophyDespairIsolationExistentialismDystopianGothicTotalitarianismContemporary PoetryDark PoetryOrwellian
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“Oh, he did look like a deity – the perfect balance of danger and charm, he was at the same time fascinating and inaccessible, distant because of his demonstrated flawlessness, and possessing such strength of character that he was dismaying and at the same time utterly attractive in an enticing and forbidden way.”

LoveLooksCharacterGodBeautifulRomanceGirlRelationshipsPerfectBeautyRelationshipDangerousDangerPersonalityHeroBalanceRomanticFemalePerfectionYoung AdultPossessionMythAttractionMythologyTemptationManWomanSuspenseAttractiveCrushCharmFascinatingDescriptionNightmareHeroicGoddessCharmingForbiddenHandsomeTemptedGothicIn LoveTemptingMaleLookLegendFlawlessSheBoyGothInaccessiblePossessivePrettyDismayHeEnticingGothic RomanceCharacter DescriptionBewitchedPossessAttractDeityDistantDemonstrateTemptEnticeForbidYoung Adult Gothic RomanceBewitchingBewitchEnticedFlawlessnessDemonstrativeDismaying
Book:Nightmarish Sacrifice
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“Gormenghast. Withdrawn and ruinous it broods in umbra: the immemorial masonry: the towers, the tracts. Is all corroding? No. Through an avenue of spires a zephyr floats; a bird whistles; a freshet beats away from a choked river. Deep in a fist of stone a doll's hand wriggles, warm rebellious on the frozen palm. A shadow shifts its length. A spider stirs... And darkness winds between the characters. - Gormenghast”

ArtLiteratureClassicGothicGormenghast
Author:Mervyn Peake
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“Nor is it only as a sign of greater gentleness or refinement of mind, but as a proof of the best possible direction of this refinement, that the tendency of the Gothic to the expression of vegetative life is to be admired. That sentence of Genesis, 'I have given thee every green herb for meat,' like all the rest of the book, has a profound symbolical as well as literal meaning. It is not merely the nourishment of the body, but the food of the soul, that is intended. The green herb is, of all nature, that which is most essential to the healthy spiritual life of man. Most of us do not need fine scenery; the precipice and the mountain peak are not intended to be seen by all men, — perhaps their power is greatest. over those who are unaccustomed to them. But trees and fields and flowers were made for all, and are necessary for all. God has connected the labour which is essential to the bodily sustenance with the pleasures which are healthiest for the heart; and while He made the ground stubborn, He made its herbage fragrant, and its blossoms fair. The proudest architecture that man can build has no higher honour than to bear the image and recall the memory of that grass of the field which is, at once, the type and the support of his existence; the goodly building is then most glorious when it is sculptured into the likeness of the leaves of Paradise; and the great Gothic spirit, as we showed it to be noble in its disquietude, is also noble in its hold of nature; it is, indeed, like the dove of Noah, in that she found no rest upon the face of the waters, — but like her in this also, 'Lo, in her mouth was an olive branch, plucked off.”

ArtArtistNatureBeautyEnglandArchitectureTreesAestheticsGothicArt History
Book:On Art and Life
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“The Impossible Banquet by Stewart Stafford Awakened by a stinging sun, Radiant wings of flame and gold, I breathe in dawn’s virgin hopes, With icy shards of doubting cold. Am I not my parents' child? Lost my way on a freedom roam, Invitation to a tempting feast, Over family, love, and home. Trapped within the world's crosshairs, Locked down with time to burn, Casting runestones, but too late, For visible escape, I yearn. An obsessive lady by my side, A judge of karma infernal, She took my life with her own hand, Bequeathing a wound eternal. Tomorrow’s hopes are now a ghost, No merciful release to illuminate, I wish to scrub away the past, A vain rebirth to change my fate. But I’m caught in the Reaper's maw, I weep for you who procrastinate, Sold my soul on Devil's Bridge, Then dragged through a fiery gate. Hope, community, society crash, Towering feats of grotesquery, You may not grieve for me who's gone, Time's cruel critic is all you see. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”

PainFamilyFateMysteryRegretHorrorTragedyGothicDystopiaBohemian Rhapsody
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“Lorel once told me that fate is a poet, organizing beauty out of chaos. I believed that for a long time—that life happens to a person, buoying them along on its tide whichever way it pleases, instead of bending and shaping itself around my will. And even now I’m not sure that I can entirely discard the idea, because God knows my life has spiraled into gothic prose, and even in the depths of my insanity I could not have thought up the repeating rhythms of horrible motif. Blood as oil, oil as sacred chrism, the suffocating paradox of its sacred and sensual nature, and can oil really run in a person’s blood? Because when I think of one, I think of the other—they are inseparable in my mind. When I think of the times I dipped my fingers in green-gold oil, memory calls forth the image of blood on a warehouse floor, and blood mixed with oil in the creases of my hands.”

PoetryFamilyDestinyFateGothicMafiaOlive OilAnd We All Bled Oil
Book:And We All Bled Oil
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