Edward Gorey Interview #1

[ShiksaWithChutzpah1]

I'm really really really looking forward to the release of your Edward Gorey documentary! :)

[iammoog]

i LOVE EG. I'm amazed you geot him to interview as he was notoriously reclusive no? How did that come about. Can't wait to see the film.

[daviddepercy]

My best friend's brother had a little book called "The Gorey Alphabet" in the late 1960's. This same young man drove into a vertical overpass column on the highway on his 21st birthday, after having listened to the Beatles' " A Day in the Life", over and over again that day. Now. 4 decades later, I find it fascinating to see and hear Mr. Gorey on Youtube. My friend was artistic and also British. It all seems to fit together for me, sad though it is.

[MrFalconford]

What a kind and giving soul.

[curtisrunstedler]

I can see why he didn't like children that much...he's very impatient, and it looks like he gets annoyed by people very easily :P

[lorikirstein]

Honestly, who cares what he did or didn't do with his sexuality? I'm so in awe of his humor and his artistry and his being a successful and recognized and respected artist, rather than a starving artist. Lovely man, apparently.

[lorikirstein]

Honestly, who cares what he did or didn't do with his sexuality? I'm so in awe of his humor and his artistry and his being a successful and recognized and respected artist, rather than a starving artist. Lovely man, apparently.

[joeblowthehot]

hes cool..who cares..

[pencap23]

I'm overjoyed to learn about this documentary! Every time I read some Gorey I'm filled with an overwhelming sense of loss, knowing that I'll never get to meet the man and pick his brain. I'm incredibly relieved that someone is making a documentary so the world can get maybe just a little bit closer to understanding the artistic genius of Gorey. Cheers!

[AshesOfDante]

One of my heros right there!

[84ccipollini]

He was asexual Look it up.

[TheUnbreakableOtaku]

He seems so different from how I imagined, but the guy's still a genius, and he seems like a wonderful person. One of my biggest idols.

[TheNepenther]

It's a shame we didn't get the whole interview. It is labeled 1 and 2 but it begins at a part where it seemed to have more.

[foofwolf22]

He has/had a high pitched efeminene voice. No problem there.

The ironic thing is that I got into him the day after he died. They did a segment on him on Sunday Morning and I was entranced.

[veganbookgirl]

he reminds me of little edie from grey gardens =)

[kittycatearmode]

I so love his work.

[cha5]

One of my favorite artists.

[RenataElliott]

His voice is strange

[darthsideous1968]

Jacks outback....oops its a dyslexic thing I guess :(

Good eats there and it's right off of old Rt 6A in Yarmouthport and NOOOOO this is not a cheesy attempt to do a plug for Jacks Outback either. lol I just loved Edward Gorey's works

[darthsideous1968]

That is sooooooooooooo COOL!!! I don't even have to see the entire surrounding of where he is to realise this interview was done at Out Back Jacks in Yarmouthport MA!!!!

[thetruthprevails]

is he gay?

[mooncusser]

You could say that he was asexual. He did not like to answer that question either way.

[bababrassknuckles]

He was quoted in an interview saying "I'm neither one thing nor the other particularly. I am fortunate in that I am apparently reasonably undersexed or something...I've never said that I was gay and I've never said that I wasn't...what I'm trying to say is that I am a person before I am anything else...."

[burlearth]

in other words, he's gay.

[georges3601]

"in other words..."

Why do you need to put in other words? We have his words.

Honestly, someone who is as open as that is not trying to hide anything.

[burlearth]

brevity.

[georges3601]

But not accuracy.

[13Elphaba13]

HELLO omg it says "I never said that I was gay" that means he was not gay.

[cagalli85]

this is my favorite quote!!!

[TheWitcherFanboy]

@mooncusser i was just starting to admire him...

[Matasoga]

@mooncusser

No, according to what I've read about him, he was indeed gay... Though I can't site my sources offhand.

[14emma]

@thetruthprevails: what does that matter? He's a great illustrator either way.

[debbiechickie5]

@thetruthprevails ya think?

[Nosmos]

Possibly one of the only people in the world to be content by himself and still appear to be friendly to everyone who met him!!! You see it can be done!!!

[Entwistle54]

me deuce.

[GeorgeThePirateKing]

I always imagined him with a dreary posh English accent. wow amazing writer though! :)

[13Elphaba13]

I KNOW right? With his work I thought of like a dark, big figure.

[Matasoga]

@GeorgeThePirateKing

That's so funny. I always imagined him that way, too. I was rather surprised to hear how different his voice was from my imaginings. 

[evileyez504]

@GeorgeThePirateKing i seriously thought he would .. sound like something out a tim burton flick..im so shocked

[13Elphaba13]

Love the way he talks

[twilightlover253]

me too =]

[13Elphaba13]

haha yah and same way I felt like Lemony Snicket character (when I saw Daniel Handler)

[stalepie3000]

What a boring guy.

[elephanthouserules]

Obliviously flummoxed when you made that comment.

[Entwistle54]

Are you a complete idiotic idiot of idiocy and . . . idiotness? Ed Gorey was the coolest poet of droll poetry out there! I hope you were being sarcastic!!!

[DoctorScissors]

Is this film out yet?

[weikko79]

That's what I'd like to know as well.

[MerronysMoll]

I'm a big fan of Edward Gorey, but he's not that well known in the UK - will this film be available over here?

[mooncusser]

Hi Molly,

Yes it will be, first on DVD and download at Amazon, most notably. It's a long time coming so we'll get a lot of enjoyment out of having people see this. Thanks for your interest!

[MerronysMoll]

Excellent, I'll keep a watch out for it.

[weikko79]

That's funny, since many Americans still think he was British!

[theeffervis]

This is great. I can't wait to see the whole film. I would also like to take this time to brag and say that I have an autographed copy of "The Doubtful Guest." yeah.

[mooncusser]

Thanks for your feedback everyone. YouTube is so full of spam comments it's so refreshing to get actual intelligent comments. We will get this movie out. Edward was at the end a hilarious person and someone very much missed.

best,

Christopher Seufert, Director

[emelia6]

maybe he felt like some of my friends he felt that it was just out there.

[Syncastar]

Hey Hey!

I was looking here too!

Did you know that this was at the outback steakhouse?

[Stantzs]

Hes pretty much how I thought he would be..except for the voice.

[weikko79]

His voice is much more gayish than I thought it would be. I mean, I knew that he was sexually ambivalent, but he's talking like a stereotype queer: "Well, or SOMEthing... I mean, 'I don't do this kind of thing' or 'This is beneath me'..."

[emelia6]

I was thinking the same thing I was wondering if he was gay but this pretty much confirms. It does not take away from his artistry only adds to it somehow.

[weikko79]

He also adored Judy Garland...

[emelia6]

ahhh well then.....I should have been tipped off by the costume design, independent bachelor, and clothing design then....

[weikko79]

When asked about his sexual preferences (in a New Yorker interview), he merely described himself as "reasonably undersexed" and went on to add that "I thought I was in love a couple of times, but I rather think it was only infatuation. It bothered me briefly, but I always got over it. (...) Cats have the same sort of nuisance value, so to speak. They occupy one." Note that he didn't say anything about the sex of his infatuations...

[weikko79]

In another interview (for Boston Magazine) he answered the same question as follows: "Well, I'm neither one thing nor the other particularly. (...) I never said that I was gay and I never said that I wasn't. A lot of people would say that I wasn't because I never do anything about it. What I'm trying to say is that I am a person before I am anything else. Now people come up to you and say, 'I'm a press agent' or 'I'm a writer.' I never say I am a writer. I never say I am an artist."

[weikko79]

He also made this interesting comment: "I realize that homosexuality is a serious problem for anyone who is - but then, of course, heterosexuality is a serious problem for anyone who is, too. And being a man is a serious problem and being a woman is, too. Lots of things are problems."

[emelia6]

Do you think that it was a question of being put into a box or whether he just did not want people to know outright?

[weikko79]

Well, I think the interviewers were trying to put him into a box, i.e., wanting to label him as this, that, or the other. I think he was just speaking frankly - though he was known to contradict himself and to cap off his statements with "Well, not really" or words to that effect.

[emelia6]

I think that is why I like him the most is that he could not be labeled. He was an original artist although he does claim to take some from Edward Lear.

[weikko79]

Actually I remember him saying in one interview or another (sorry for constantly quoting from him, but I'm currently rereading a book of interviews with him) that while Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll were his biggest heroes, his real influences came from elsewhere, from a multitude of sources. I think he added that his two biggest influences were Louis Feuillade and Georges Balanchine. Go figure. Lear obviously was an inspiration for his book of limericks, "The Listing Attic."

[emelia6]

I know Balanchine but have to research Feuillade. Do you Balanchine influenced his set design love?

[weikko79]

As far as I know (again according to the interviews), he didn't love designing sets. For example, he didn't like seeing his drawings blown up to the proportions that they were blown up to in "Dracula". I think what influenced him in Balanchine was more the latter's philosophy of life - "Just do it!" or something along those lines. I can look up the exact quote later.

[emelia6]

Re: Mystery, 'Then I saw what they'd done with the first one or two. Well, I didn't throw a fit in public or anything, but I finally said I didn't think this was working out -- and they've been faking me ever since.' Your right he won awards for the Dracula set but did not seem to like working on the Mystery project. Did not agree with his vision somehow. Do you notice we are the only ones talking on this page> LOL

[weikko79]

He said about Dracula: "I must say Dracula is not a project I would ever have taken to my bosom if they hadn't offered lots of money. Not that I have anything against it; it just doesn't interest me very much. I keep telling everybody plainly that what I really want to do is design sets & costumes for Gilbert & Sullivan or something like that." I'm sure other people will join in once they notice what a fascination discussion we have here!

[emelia6]

LOL true true time will tell. To choose gilbert and sullivan over dracula......sorry I choose dracula.

[emelia6]

I do thank you though for the norstein though I have definitely become a fan.

[weikko79]

Have you seen "The Hedgehog in the Fog"? I think that's his best work. But it should definitely be seen on a big screen or at least in the telly, since it loses much on YouTube. It's better than nothing, of course.

[emelia6]

I watched the interview and tale of tales last night. How could this man not get funding for the overcoat??

[weikko79]

"This 'Overcoat' film began at the most inappropriate time of perestroika," Norstein says, referring to the period before the breakup of the Soviet Union, when money for artists dried up. "I always had difficulty with my bosses doing it on time and the removal of fees. But I never gave up on the film."

Apparently the film will be released in a half hour version later this year. Let's hope someone posts it on YouTube.

[emelia6]

LOL do you have like a fund of reference info on hand or are you referencing a source?

[weikko79]

I just googled "Yuri Norstein" and "overcoat" and picked up the quote from the first reference I got. It took about 15 seconds in all. Internet is a treasury of information if you know how to use it.

[emelia6]

LOL. So you are intellectually winging it? Good job. I now am impressed.

[13Elphaba13]

Did he say this in this video? Do you know the link to a video he said this? really interesting, thanks!

[weikko79]

I don't know which comment you are referring to, but all the ones I quoted come from a book of interviews with Gorey called "Ascending Peculiarity".

[funnyshthere]

the comment i commented on was removed. sorry weikko79,wasnt talking to you, someone said he was "so borring".they were mistaken,obviously since their comment is not longer there.

[nukleopatra88]

he's funny. i've always wondered what he looked like.

[silviagrijalba]

¡que maravilla! una entrevista con Gorey y todo lo demás. Soy superfan. Menudo descubrimiento. Muy agradecida.

[gollum42]

Thanks so much for uploading this! As a huge Gorey fan it's awesome to just see the man talking about his art and everything! I myself just uploaded footage I shot at his house in 2003, as it were.

I am very excited for your documentary and can't wait to see it completed! Utterly awesome stuff!

-CAP