You would not serve junk food at a banquet, and your book must be a banquet. Get your language from Swift, not from Shopsy's. Robertson Davies More Quotes by Robertson Davies More Quotes From Robertson Davies Did you know that Puritanism went hand in hand with dirt, that Oliver Cromwell put a 100 per cent tax on soap and that the repeal of the soap tax was one of the most popular acts of Charles II at his Restoration? Robertson Davies restoration dirt hands My dear fellow, my whole life is moved by the principle that the one thing which is more important than peace is music. It is because I believe that I am poor. Robertson Davies important principles believe here are some homosexuals whom we would do well to take seriously. Robertson Davies homosexual wells Canada, having few indigenous prejudices, has been compelled to import them from elsewhere, duty-free, and it is the rare Canadian who is not shaken, at some time in the year, by "old, unhappy, far-off things / And battles long ago", like Wordsworth's solitary reaper. We are a nation of immigrants, and not happy in our minds. Robertson Davies long-ago mind years The critic is the duenna in the passionate affair between playwrights, actors and audiences - a figure dreaded, and occasionally comic, but never welcome, never loved. Robertson Davies welcome passionate actors A big man is always accused of gluttony, whereas a wizened or osseous man can eat like a refugee at every meal, and no one ever notices his greed. Robertson Davies greed meals men The love that dare not speak its name has become the love that won't shut up. Robertson Davies shut-up speak names In my experience tact is usually worse than the brutalities of truth. Robertson Davies tact brutality In the end, it is upon the quality and commitment of individuals that all group movements depend. Robertson Davies groups quality commitment Whether you are really right or not doesn't matter; it's the belief that counts. Robertson Davies belief matter life No one needs a word processor if he has an efficient secretary. Robertson Davies secretary efficient needs Canada has one of the highest rates of insanity in any civilized country and one reason might be that life in many places is so desperately dull. Robertson Davies insanity country dull "There is no disputing about tastes," says the old saw. In my experience there is little else. Robertson Davies saws taste littles The eyes see only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. Robertson Davies As A general rule, people marry most hapily with their own kind. The trouble lies in the fact that people usually marry at an age where they do not really know what their own kind is. Robertson Davies If I had my way books would not be written in English, but in an exceedingly difficult secret language that only skilled professional readers and story-tellers could interpret. Then people like you would have to go to public halls and pay good prices to hear the professionals decode and read the books aloud for you. This plan would have the advantage of scaring off all amateur authors, retired politicians, country doctors and I-Married-a-Midget writers who would not have the patience to learn the secret language. Robertson Davies Many a promising career has been wrecked by marrying the wrong sort of woman. The right sort of woman can distinguish between Creative Lassitude and plain shiftlessness. Robertson Davies The world is burdened with young fogies. Old men with ossified minds are easily dealt with. But men who look young, act young and everlastingly harp on the fact that they are young, but who nevertheless think and act with a degree of caution that would be excessive in their grandfathers, are the curse of the world. Their very conservatism is secondhand, and they don't know what they are conserving. Robertson Davies The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past. Robertson Davies We wanted to meet him, for though we were neither of us naive people we had not wholly lost our belief that it is delightful to meet artists who have given us pleasure. Robertson Davies meet pleasure lost people