I think of an author as somebody who goes into the marketplace and puts down his rug and says, "I will tell… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser. — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons. — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
The clerisy are those who read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to kill time; who… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
You're all mad for words. Words are just farts from a lot of fools who have swallowed too many books. Give me… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them. — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
There is absolutely no point in sitting down to write a book unless you feel that you must write that book, or… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
The clerisy are those who seek, and find, delight and enlargement of life in books. The clerisy are those for whom reading… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Do not suppose, however, that I intend to urge a diet of classics on anybody. I have seen such diets at work.… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“Life, as he conceived of it, was a long decline from a glorious past, and if a reader approaches a newspaper in… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Computers will have to learn that when I quote from some old author who spelled differently from the machine, the wishes of… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
The great book for you is the book that has the most to say to you at the moment when you are… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
It is in this matter that I fall foul of so many American writers on writing; they seem to think that writing… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“Conversations and jokes together, mutual rendering of good services, the reading together of sweetly phrased books, the sharing of nonsense and mutual… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
The people who are always monkeying with these great books to make them fully (comprehensible) have no friend in me, for in… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Real bibliophiles do not put their books on shelves for people to look at or handle. They have no desire to show… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
I don't think I would ever write a book with what anybody could call pornography in it, because I feel that pornography… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“So -- I confess I have been a rake at reading. I have read those things which I ought not to have… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Book lovers are thought by unbookish people to be gentle and unworldly, and perhaps a few of them are so. But there… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Many authors write like amateur blacksmiths making their first horseshoe; the clank of the anvil, the stench of the scorched leather apron,… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“She herself was a victim of that lust for books which rages in the breast like a demon, and which cannot be… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“Who's Mrs. Gummidge?' 'If you're a good girl and get well soon I'll lend you the book.' 'Oh, somebody in a book!… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
If I had my way books would not be written in English, but in an exceedingly difficult secret language that only skilled… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“Our appetite for destruction grew with feeding. I started gingerly, pulling some books out of a case, but soon was tearing out… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
The book forces itself into my mind when I am lugging furniture, or pulling weeds. — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them.… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Literary critics, however, frequently suffer from a curious belief that every author longs to extend the boundaries of literary art, wants to… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
If I had my way books would not be written in English, but in an exceedingly difficult secret language that only skilled… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“I came at last to a recognition of myself as, in part , a Tom Sawyer who wanted everything done according to… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“Are you New World or Old?' 'Sounds like a novel by Henry James.' 'Never read him.' 'Don't. But that was his question… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
It used to be fashionable for authors to have their pictures taken with dogs, but the dogs always looked like models hired… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Too much traffic with a quotation book begets a conviction of ignorance in a sensitive reader. Not only is there a mass… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
To ask an author who hopes to be a serious writer if his work is autobiographical is like asking a spider where… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
A great many complimentary things have been said about the faculty of memory, and if you look in a good quotation book… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“What is meant to be heard is necessarily more direct in expression, and perhaps more boldly coloured, than what is meant for… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
You would not serve junk food at a banquet, and your book must be a banquet. Get your language from Swift, not… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
If I had my way books would not be written in English but in an exceedingly difficult secret language… This plan would… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“...the irrational will have its say, perhaps because 'irrational' is the wrong word for it.” — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
If you're going to do something that looks evil, don't smear it with icing and pretend it's good; just bloody well do it and… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it. — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Although there may be nothing new under the sun, what is old is new to us and so rich and astonishing that we never… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
If I had to describe my remarks this evening frankly as if I were in police court and on oath, so to speak I… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
The people of the United States, perhaps more than any other nation in history, love to abase themselves and proclaim their unworthiness, and seem… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
I don't suppose God laughs at the people who think He doesn't exist. He's above jokes. But the devil isn't. That's one of his… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
Inactivity and deprivation of all accustomed stimulus is not rest; it is a preparation for the tomb — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
“My lifelong involvement with Mrs Dempster began at 5:58 o'clock p.m. on 27 December 1908, at which time I was ten years and seven months old.” — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
In a government like ours, the Crown is the abiding and unshakable element in government; politicians may come and go, but the Crown remains… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
There can be no doubt that Samuel Marchbanks is one of the choice and master spirits of this age. If there were such a… — Robertson Davies Copy Share Image
