There is no simple explanation for anything important any of us do, and the human tragedy, or the human irony, consists in the necessity of living with the consequences of actions performed under the pressure of compulsions so obscure we do not and cannot understand them.

An artist has to take life as he finds it. Life by itself is formless wherever it is. Art must give it form.

The Greeks who knew everything understood that without the orgy there is no middle ground between bedlam and Toronto ... we need the healing grace of the orgy in this country.

The Ottawa river flows out of Protestant Ontario into Catholic Quebec.

The trouble with this whole country is that it's divided up into little puddles with big fish in each one of them.

The farmer's way of saving money: to be owed by someone he trusted.

A novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat.