Actually, when it comes to knocking the Canadian cultural scene, nobody outdoes Canadians, myself included. We are veritable masters of self-deprecation. Mordecai Richler More Quotes by Mordecai Richler More Quotes From Mordecai Richler I don't hold with shamans, witch doctors, or psychiatrists. Shakespeare, Tolstoy, or even Dickens, understood more about the human condition than ever occurred to any of you. You overrated bunch of charlatans deal with the grammar of human problems, and the writers I've mentioned with the essence. Mordecai Richler doctorsproblemessence Canada is one of the few places left where the small decencies are observed. If, as a young man, I was scornful of the country because we always seemed so far behind style-setting New York, I now thank God for the cultural lag. Ours, after all, is the good neighbourhood. A society well worth preserving. Mordecai Richler new-yorkmencountry When a child is born, I once explained to the kids, some dads lay down bottles of wine for them that will mature when they grow up into ungrateful adults. Instead, what you're going to get from me, as each of you turns sixteen, is a library of the one hundred books that gave me the most pleasure when I was a know-nothing adolescent. Mordecai Richler growing-updadchildren If you caricature friends in your first novel they will be upset, but if you don't they will feel betrayed. Mordecai Richler upsetbetrayedwriting There are three sides to every argument. Yours. The other guy's. And the right side. Mordecai Richler threeguysides A boy can be two, three, four potential people, but a man is only one. He murders the others. Mordecai Richler menboystwo Nothing is absolute any longer. There is a choice of beliefs and a choice of truths to go with them. If you choose not to choose then there is no truth at all. There are only points of view. Mordecai Richler choicesbeliefviews Mr. Bernard died on a Monday, at the age of seventy-five, his body wasted. He lay in state for two days in the lobby of the Bernard Gursky Tower and, as he failed to rise on the third, he was duly buried. Mordecai Richler agemondaytwo Beauty, like male ballet dancers, makes some men afraid. Mordecai Richler dancerbeautymen Each man creates god in his own image. Mordecai Richler men Edmonton is not the end of the world but you can certainly see it from there. Mordecai Richler edmontonfunnyworld My enduring feeling about René Lévesque is that if he had chosen to hang me, even as he tightened the rope round my neck, he would have complained about how humiliating it was for him to spring the trapdoor. And then, once I was swinging in the wind, he would blame my ghost for having obliged him to murder, thereby imposing a guilt trip on a sweet, self-effacing, downtrodden Francophone. Mordecai Richler selfspringsweet Fundamentally, all writing is about the same thing; it's about dying, about the brief flicker of time we have here, and the frustration that it creates. Mordecai Richler frustrationdyingwriting There are ten commandments, right? Well, it's like an exam. You get eight out of ten, you're just about top of the class. Mordecai Richler ethicseightclass I must speak the truth, even at the risk of being ostracized by my fellow scribblers. In fact, anticipating their rage, I have already applied for a place in the Canada Council's witness-protection program. This because, much as it pains me to turn on my kind, I fear the time has come to admit that far too many celebrated writers were outrageous liars, philanderers, drunks, druggies, unsuitable babysitters, plagiarists, psychopaths, parasites, cowards, indifferent dads or moms and bad credit risks. Mordecai Richler dadpainmom In, 1950, at the age, 19 I dropped out of St. George William College in Montreal, as it then was, and sailed for England on the Franconia. Foolishly, no arrogantly, believing I could put Canada and its picayune problems behind me, never dreaming it would become the raw material of most of my fiction and non-fiction. Or that I would care so deeply about its surviving intact. Mordecai Richler collegedreambelieve I obviously prefer writing novels but I take my journalism very seriously, and I enjoy doing it between novels. It gives me an opportunity to move in the outside world. Mordecai Richler writingopportunitymoving The revolution eats its own. Capitalism re-creates itself. Mordecai Richler capitalismrevolution In Canada, nobody is ever overthrown because nobody gives a damn. Mordecai Richler canadaumpiresgiving I work every day - or at least I force myself into office or room. I may get nothing done, but you don't earn bonuses without putting in time. Nothing may come for three months, but you don't earn the fourth without it. Mordecai Richler officewritingrooms
