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There is absolutely no point in sitting down to write a book unless you feel that you must write that book, or else go mad, or die.

Robertson Davies

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Robertson Davies
Age: 82 †
Born: 1913
Born: August 28
Died: 1995
Died: December 3
Journalist
Literary Critic
Musicologist
Novelist
Playwright
Professor
Reporter
Writer
William Robertson Davies
Feel
Absolutely
Must
Sitting
Feels
Unless
Writing
Dies
Point
Write
Else
Book
Mad

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No one needs a word processor if he has an efficient secretary.
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It is odd how all men develop the notion, as they grow older, that their mothers were wonderful cooks. I have yet to meet a man who will admit that his mother was a kitchen assassin and nearly poisoned him.
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Imagination is a good horse to carry you over the ground - not a flying carpet to set you free from probability.
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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.
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Boredom and stupidity and patriotism, especially when combined, are three of the greatest evils of the world we live in.
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In India it is regarded as a good idea to dart in front of an oncoming car, for the car is sure to kill the evil spirits who are pursuing you, and all the rest of your life you will have good luck.
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The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
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It is a waste of time to dissipate one's moral zeal in disapproving of royal persons who have mistresses.
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There is no disputing about tastes, says the old saw. In my experience there is little else.
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Literary critics, however, frequently suffer from a curious belief that every author longs to extend the boundaries of literary art, wants to explore new dimensions of the human spirit, and if he doesn't, he should be ashamed of himself.
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We mistrust anything that too strongly challenges our ideal of mediocrity.
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You're all mad for words. Words are just farts from a lot of fools who have swallowed too many books. Give me things!
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If we seek the pleasures of love, passion should be occasional, and common sense continual.
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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.
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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.
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If you don't hurry up and let life know what you want, life will damned soon show you what you'll get.
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I would not for a moment have you suppose that I am one of those idiots who scorns Science, merely because it is always twisting and turning, and sometimes shedding its skin, like the serpent that is [the doctors'] symbol.
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here are some homosexuals whom we would do well to take seriously.
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In the end, it is upon the quality and commitment of individuals that all group movements depend.
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In a government like ours, the Crown is the abiding and unshakable element in government politicians may come and go, but the Crown remains and certain aspects of our system pertain to it which are not dependent on any political party. In this sense, the Crown is the consecrated spirit of Canada.
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