“I began even as a boy to realize how wide the world can be for a man of free intelligence.”

“I was allowed to wander where I could. Here is a case in which you search for your independence and allow something creative to come out of that.”

“It is not in life but in art that self-fulfillment is to be found.”

“Pioneers did not produce original works of art because they were creating original human environments they did not imagine Utopias because they were shaping them.”

“If we try to envisage an 'average Canadian writer' we can see him living near a campus teaching at least part-time at university level mingling too much for his work's good with academics doing ...”

“Pioneers did not produce original works of art because they were creating original human environments they did not imagine Utopias because they were shaping them.”

“I have spent weeks in the desert, forgetting to look at the moon, he says, as a married man may spend days never looking into the face of his wife. These are not sins of omission but signs of pre-o...”

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my co...”

“You know, Dorothy, you cant let people bring you down so easily or youll have your nose in the dirt for the rest of your life. From what I make of it, for every person with a good thought, there ar...”

“You know you've reached a new plateau of group mediocrity when even a Canadian is alarmed by your lack of individuality.”

“She and Marie were Montreal girls, not trained to accompany heroes, or to hold out for dreams, but just to be patient.”

“Nonsense. Everyone knows Canadians are a peaceful people. He was laughing now.Tell that to the White House circa 1812, I told him.Oh? Why?Because thats the year the peace-loving Canadians burned it...”