Alice Munro

The constant happiness is curiosity.

— Alice Munro

She would live now, not read.

— Alice Munro

“They spoke like caricatures, it was unbearable.”

— Alice Munro

I had my first baby at twenty-one.

— Alice Munro

Life would be grand if it weren't for the people.

— Alice Munro

It’s just life. You can’t beat life.

— Alice Munro

And now such a warm commotion, such busy love.

— Alice Munro

“It was comparable to getting sick from bad ventilation”

— Alice Munro

people who believe in miracles do not make much fuss when they actually encounter one

— Alice Munro

The story fails but your faith in the importance of doing the story doesn't fail.

— Alice Munro

“The tiny share we have of time appalls me, though my father seems to regard it with tranquillity.”

— Alice Munro

I want my stories to move people ... to feel some kind of reward from the writing.

— Alice Munro

Braininess is not attractive unless combined with some signs of elegance; class.

— Alice Munro

I feel that I've done what I wanted to do, and that makes me feel fairly content.

— Alice Munro

I like gaps; all my stories have gaps. It seems this is the way people's lives present themselves.

— Alice Munro

“There is a change coming I think in the lives of girls and women. Yes, but it is up to us to…

— Alice Munro

When you are young, you cannot imagine being disabled. You imagine you would conquer it somehow. As I've got older, I can…

— Alice Munro

“There are people who carry decency and optimism around with them, who seem to cleanse every atmosphere they settle in, and you…

— Alice Munro

“Her hair had been long and wavy and brown then, natural in curl and color, as he liked it, and her face…

— Alice Munro

It's as if tendencies that seem most deeply rooted in our minds, most private and singular, have come in as spores on…

— Alice Munro

“They were tolerant of what most people in town would think of as moral lapses in each other, but quite intolerant of…

— Alice Munro

I can have people around a lot more because I'm not always chasing them away so I can work on my novel.…

— Alice Munro

Sometimes I get the start of a story from a memory, an anecdote, but that gets lost and is usually unrecognizable in…

— Alice Munro

And did I not think then, What nonsense it is to suppose one man so different from another when all that life…

— Alice Munro

“They would be displeased to have anybody call them docile, yet in a way they are. They submit themselves to manly behaviour.…

— Alice Munro

A story is not like a road to follow... it's more like a house. You go inside and stay there for a…

— Alice Munro

“I have been incredibly lucky," he said. "Lucky in my life. Oh, I know some people would not say so. They'd say…

— Alice Munro

“These relatives of hers, the Boles and the Jetters and the Pooles, used to be around the house a lot, or else…

— Alice Munro

“If you live long enough as a parent nowadays, you discover that you have made mistakes you didn't bother to know about…

— Alice Munro

Children of course are monstrously conventional, repelled at once by whatever is off-center, out of whack, unmanageable. And being an only child…

— Alice Munro

“If you live long enough as a parent, you discover that you have made mistakes you didn't bother to know about as…

— Alice Munro

“All they did was stir up desire, and longing, and hopelessness, a trio of miserable caged wildcats that had been installed in…

— Alice Munro

“A fight like this was stunning, revealing not just how much he was on the lookout for enemies, but how she too…

— Alice Munro

“While they were sitting in the room above his shop there had been a distance, and she had never feared—and never hoped—…

— Alice Munro

“At high school I was never comfortable for a minute. I did not know about Lonnie. Before an exam, she got icy…

— Alice Munro

“This is what happens. You put it away for a little while, and now and again you look in the closet for…

— Alice Munro

“He said the difference between the male and female modes of thought were easily illustrated by the thoughts of a boy and…

— Alice Munro

“ Row, row, row your boat Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream. I lie in…

— Alice Munro

“Here they found themselves year after year- a group of busy, youngish women who had eased their cars impatiently through the archaic…

— Alice Munro

“He did take her to the movies. They saw Father of the Bride. Grace hated it. She hated girls like Elizabeth Taylor…

— Alice Munro