38 Gothic Quotes To Inspire

Gothic literature, with its dark, mysterious allure, has captivated readers for centuries, transporting them to shadowy realms filled with brooding landscapes and enigmatic characters. These stories evoke a sense of wonder and curiosity, drawing us into worlds where the lines between reality and the supernatural blur. Whether you're a long-time fan of Gothic tales or new to the genre, the power and beauty of these narratives can spark inspiration in unexpected ways. In this collection, you'll find 38 of the most captivating Gothic quotes, each one a portal into the depths of human emotion and imagination. Let these words whisk you away to the haunting beauty of Gothic fiction, where every shadow holds a secret, and every whisper tells a story.

1. “After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn’s for an oyster supper.” - Michael Cox

2. “One hand was behind his back, and he held it out, presenting a bouquet of white and smoky purple lilies. “They’re straight from the underworld, by the way. They are everlasting. They won’t die.” - Jess C. Scott

3. “She used to place her pretty arms about my neck, draw me to her, and laying her cheek to mine, murmur with her lips near my ear, “Dearest, your little heart is wounded; think me not cruel because I obey the irresistible law of my strength and weakness; if your dear heart is wounded, my wild heart bleeds with yours. In the rapture of my enormous humiliation I live in your warm life, and you shall die—die, sweetly die—into mine. I cannot help it; as I draw near to you, you, in your turn, will draw near to others, and learn the rapture of that cruelty, which yet is love; so, for a while, seek to know no more of me and mine, but trust me with all your loving spirit.”And when she had spoken such a rhapsody, she would press me more closely in her trembling embrace, and her lips in soft kisses gently glow upon my cheek.” - Sheridan Le Fanu

4. “I run blindly through the madhouse ... And I cannot even pray ... For I have no God.” - Grant Morrison

5. “The form of the Gothic novel also implicitly contested the claims of Realism to reflect the world directly by showing how artificial its structure was.” - Michael Richardson

6. “(speaking of Ann Radcliffe) A work of art worthy of the name is one which gives us back the freshness of the emotions of childhood.” - André Breton

7. “How many people could embrace such disturbing imagery?” - Novala Takemoto

8. “I have a, shall we say, morbid personality.” - Novala Takemoto

9. “She mediated, by turns, on broken promises and broken arches, phaetons and false hangings, Tilneys and trap-doors.” - Jane Austen

10. “I envy people that know love. That have someone who takes them as they are.” - Jess C. Scott

11. “It was so close to October that Halloween was knocking at his heart.” - Barry Eysman

12. “He speaks in that strange sports talk, telling me about the start of the new season and asks if I follow baseball. No. I really don’t. He assures me if I stay in town long enough I will become a baseball fan. It’s a requirement of living in St. Louis. Everyone is a Cardinal’s fan. “Loyal,” he tells me. St. Louis is a loyal town.” - Gwenn Wright

13. “I am not a fool. This is why Olga was so distraught - because I teetered the line, and most times my left foot was a paperweight clinging to hell.” - Rebekah Armusik

14. “I have learned one lesson in all this and I will share it knowing it will do no one any good. The lesson is this: "There are none more complicit in one's undoing than one's own heart".” - James Pratt

15. “It was now autumn, and I made up my mind to make, before winter set in, an excursion across Normandy, a country with which I was not acquainted. It must be borne in mind that I began with Rouen, and for a week I wandered about enthusiastic with admiration, in that picturesque town of the Middle Ages, in that veritable museum of extraordinary Gothic monuments.Well, one afternoon, somewhere about four o'clock, as I happened to be passing down an out-of-the-way by-street, in the middle of which flowed a deep river, black as ink, named the Eau de Robec, my attention wholly directed to examining the bizarre and antique physiognomy of the houses, was all of a sudden attracted by the sight of a series of shops of furniture brokers, one after the other, from door to door along the street. Ah! these second-hand brokers had well chosen their locality, these sordid old traffickers of bric-a-brac, in this fantastic alley leading up from stream of that sinister dark water, under the steep pointed overhanging gables of tiled roofs and projecting shingle eaves, where the weathercocks of the past still creaked overhead. ("Who Knows?")” - Guy de Maupassant

16. “But, Mrs Van Hoosier, if I may make so bold-''You may not,' She inserted another cake into her mouth and chewed it so angrily I all but felt sorry for it. When it was finally dead she turned and fixed me a look, as though she were a scientist and I some kind of bug she was microscoping.” - John Harding

17. “There was something awesome in the thought of the solitary mortal standing by the open window and summoning in from the gloom outside the spirits of the nether world.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

18. “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” - Mervyn Peake

19. “If I were dead, I wouldn't be sad, and I wouldn't be glad, because I wouldn't be.” - Marcus Sedgwick

20. “Never give up, Never surrender!!!!! If you think you can't, then you must, if you must, then you can..Tony Robbins” - Paula V. Hardin

21. “It was enough to drive me mad. I was no longer myself and yet I was so much more me than I had ever been before. ~Katherine Demure” - Gwenn Wright

22. “I came from across the ocean and through the wilderness and landed here and found you hiding behind a tapestry. My fate was sealed at the sight of your stockinged feet.~Viktor von Strassenberg” - Gwenn Wright

23. “All cats are gray in the dark. And besides, her actions have less to do with her, and everything to do with you.” - Jaye Frances

24. “To want more was not just childish, but cowardly, and somehow constpatory too. Death was change; it led to new chances, new vacancies, new niches and opportunities; it was not all loss.” - Iain Banks

25. “Girls are caterpillars while they live in the world, to be finally butterflies when the summer comes; but in the meantime there are grubs and larvae, don't you see - each with their peculiar propensities, necessities and structure.” - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

26. “ I knew then that I would devote every minute we had left together to making her happy, to repairing the pain I had caused her and returning to her what I never known how to give her. These pages will be our memory until she drows her last breath in my arms and I take her forever and escape at last to a place where neither heaven nor hell will ever be able to find us. ” - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

27. “All is as if the world did cease to exist. The city's monuments go unseen, its past unheard, and its culture slowly fading in the dismal sea.” - Nathan Reese Maher

28. “Did Bach ever eatpancakes at midnight?” - Nathan Reese Maher

29. “Call me crazy, but there is something terribly wrong with this city.” - Nathan Reese Maher

30. “There is a stillness between us, a period of restlessness that ties my stomachin a hangman’s noose. It is this same lack in noise that lives, there! in thedarkness of the grave, how it frightens me beyond all things.” - Nathan Reese Maher

31. “I rouse Emily to our guests, as she finishes off our fifteenth snowman by setting the head atop its torso. She stands limp at my direction, pointing out the coming shadows and I cannot help but hear a muffled sigh as she decapitates her latest creation with a single push of her hand.” - Nathan Reese Maher

32. “That’s a stupid name! Whirly-gig is much better, I think. Who in their rightmind would point at this thing and say, ‘I’m going to fly in my Model-A1’.People would much rather say, ‘Get in my whirly-gig’. And that’s what youshould name it.” - Nathan Reese Maher

33. “Do we not each dream of dreams? Do we not dance on the notes of lostmemories? Then are we not each dreamers of tomorrow and yesterday, since dreamsplay when time is askew? Are we not all adrift in the constant sea of trial and when all is done, do we not all yearn for ships to carry us home?” - Nathan Reese Maher

34. “Cry no tears for us, my friend.” I pry at her fingers, panicking to be released in fear that she may drag me into death with her. She croaks again, “Lend no aches to the dreams of yesterday.” From the corpse of Warren, his greyish gums smack from whatever goo has settled in his mouth, “Allow the tide sweep free the bay.” Then together they sing in zombie choir, “And home the ships sailing send.” - Nathan Reese Maher

35. “And Mother, I love her dearly, but she flies into a panic whenever I mention women’s rights. As she sees it, it will be so much more difficult to marry me off if I am not only of a weak constitution but of a progressive mind as well.” - Gwenn Wright

36. “But there was nothing. No village or town as far as her eyes could strain. Nowhere for her saviours to come from and take her to; just fields and trees and the weeping arc of the river Greave all the way to the horizon. Just like in the books, Greaveburn was all there was; building and building until streets were foundations, roofs were floors, constantly climbing away from itself. now that Abrasia saw it, her dream of escape crumbled completely like an ancient map in her fingers. The horizon was the world's edge and there was nothing beyond it but mist and falling.Greaveburn stood alone on this little circle of earth, the river running around and into itself like a snake eating its tail. And Abrasia was doomed to watch the sun and stars trade places for all eternity.” - Craig Hallam

37. “Tragic tales rarely do make sense.” - Gwenn Wright

38. “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.” - Keira D. Skye