Robertson Davies Quotes

"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."

"It isn't everybody who is the hero of his own romance, and when we meet one he is likely to be a fascinating monster"

"The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact a return to the idealized past"

"I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them."

"The people who are always monkeying with these great books to make them fully (comprehensible) have no friend in me, for in their realm the fully comprehensible is not worth comprehending"

"To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser."

"Only a fool expects to be happy all the time."

"Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner vision."

"I do not 'get' ideas; ideas get me."

"Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it."

"For I was a collaborator with Destiny, not one who put a pistol to its head and demanded particular treasures"

"Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons"

"Female beauty is an important Minor Sacrament which cannot be received too often; I am not at all sure that neglect of it does not constitute a sin of some kind"

"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."

"The love of truth lies at the root of much humor"

"One of the most difficult tasks for the educated and sophisticated mind is to recognize that some clichés are also important truths"

"The great book for you is the book that has the most to say to you at the moment when you are reading. I do not mean the book that is most instructive, but the book that feeds your spirit. And that depends on your age, your experience, your psychological and spiritual need."

"I heard his library burned down and both books were destroyed - and one of them hadn't even been colored in yet."

"Students today are a pretty solemn lot. One of the really notable achievements of the twentieth century has been to make the young old before their time."

"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."