Quotes by Mordecai Richler

“...if I were an angel of the Lord, I would mark the doors of each of my children's homes with an X, so that plague and misfortune would pass over them. Alas, I lack the qualifications. So when ther...”

“Obviously the raven with the unquenchable itch was at it again, playing tricks on the world and its creatures. Once by air, he thought, and now by water.”

“One final thought. In the years leading up to my trial, whenever I was caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the highway leading to my cottage, creeping along behind a battered, rust eaten pick-up ...”

“Actually when it comes to knocking the Canadian cultural scene nobody outdoes Canadians myself included. We are veritable masters of self-deprecation.”

“Listen your Lordship I'm a respecter of institutions. Even in Paris I remained a Canadian. I puffed hashish but I didn't inhale.”

“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.”

“I work every day-or at least I force myself into my 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...”

“Wherever I travel I'm too late. The orgy has moved elsewhere.”

“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 ...”

“Fundamentally all writing is about the same thing: it's about dying about the brief flicker of time we have here and the frustrations that it creates.”

“Actually when it comes to knocking the Canadian cultural scene nobody outdoes Canadians myself included. We are veritable masters of self-deprecation.”

“Listen your Lordship I'm a respecter of institutions. Even in Paris I remained a Canadian. I puffed hashish but I didn't inhale.”

“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.”

“Wherever I travel I'm too late. The orgy has moved elsewhere.”

“Fundamentally all writing is about the same thing: it's about dying about the brief flicker of time we have here and the frustrations that it creates.”

“This is an age of scientific wonders. You miss somebody so you pick up the phone to say hello. Three minutes for sixty-five cents. Nobody goes broke.”

“The chief rabbi of the underworld, that's me.”

“I was a voracious reader, but you would be mistaken if you took that as evidence of my quality.”

“Canada is not so much a country as a holding tank filled with the disgruntled progeny of defeated peoples. French-Canadians consumed by self-pity; the descendants of Scots who fled the Duke of Cumb...”

“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...”