Robertson Davies
QuotationsIf I had my way books would not be written in English, but in an exceedingly difficult secret language that only skilled professional readers and storytellers 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.
A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.
Canada is not really a place where you are encouraged to have large spiritual adventures.
I see Canada as a country torn between a very northern, rather extraordinary, mystical spirit which it fears and its desire to present itself to the world as a Scotch banker.
Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.
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.
No people in the world can make you feel so small as the English.
Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them.
Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.
If we seek the pleasures of love, passion should be occasional, and common sense continual.
What we call luck is the inner man externalized. We make things happen to us.
Comparatively few people know what a million dollars actually is. To the majority it is a gaseous concept, swelling or decreasing as the occasion suggests. In the minds of politicians, perhaps more than anywhere, the notion of a million dollars has this accordion-like ability to expand or contract; if they are disposing of it, the million is a pleasing sum, reflecting warmly upon themselves; if somebody else wants it, it becomes a figure of inordinate size, not to be compassed by the rational mind.
A Librettist is a mere drudge in the world of opera.
Pornography is rather like trying to find out about a Beethoven symphony by having somebody tell you about it and perhaps hum a few bars.
Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision.
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.
I think of an author as somebody who goes into the marketplace and puts down his rug and says, “I will tell you a story,” and then he passes the hat.
Memorable Quotations Store at Amazon
Robertson Davies at Amazon
MemorableQuotations.com
MemorableQuotations.com
Memorable Quotations:
Jewish Writers of the Past
Jewish Writers of the Past
Memorable Quotations:
Irish Writers of the Past
Irish Writers of the Past
Memorable Quotations:
Famous Teachers of the Past
Famous Teachers of the Past
Memorable Quotations:
Philosophers of Western Civilization
Philosophers of Western Civilization
Memorable Quotations:
American Women Writers of the Past
American Women Writers of the Past
Memorable Quotations:
French Writers of the Past
French Writers of the Past
Memorable Quotations:
English Writers of the Past
English Writers of the Past
Memorable Quotations:
Massachusetts Writers of the Past
Massachusetts Writers of the Past
Memorable Quotations:
Humorists, Wits, and Satirists of the Past
Humorists, Wits, and Satirists of the Past
A Saigon Party:
And Other Vietnam War Short Stories
And Other Vietnam War Short Stories
Memories Are Like Clouds
Memorable Quotations: Teachers and Educators (A - H)
Memorable Quotations: Teachers and Educators (I - P)
Memorable Quotations: Teachers and Educators (Q - Z)
Memorable Quotations: Humorists, Wits, Satirists (A - H)
Memorable Quotations: Humorists, Wits, Satirists (I - P)
Memorable Quotations: Humorists, Wits, Satirists (Q - Z)
Memorable Quotations: African-American Writers
Memorable Quotations: American Democrats
Memorable Quotations: American First Ladies
Memorable Quotations: American Presidents
Memorable Quotations: American Republicans
|