Claire Messud Quotes
At the end of the day, what would be a Canadian sensibility? Is it Michael Ondaatje? Alice Munro? Is Margaret Atwood more Canadian than Neil Bissoondath?

Quotes to Explore
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I kind of like the idea of living a rather ordinary life as a shopkeeper, and I examine that possibility as one of the outcomes of the young Gerald Bostock growing older.
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I was raised Catholic, and my grandmother taught me to stay. As a teenager, I thought if you went on a date, you should stay for a couple of years. I didn't realize that if he wasn't your cup of tea, you got to leave.
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I've always been happy with my body.
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I guess I am sometimes over the top on stage, but then, that is my personality. I'm over the top in real life, too.
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The power should be in individual democracies in individual communities. It shouldn't be an oligarchy or some small group of elite. Power should be with the people and not with some politician or some heir to the throne or some madman.
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Until you're the person that other people fall back on, until you're the one that's leaned on, not the person doing the leaning, you're not an adult.
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At Barca, players were banned from driving their sports cars to training.
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We don't think of ourselves as a regional investment bank. We think of ourselves as merchant bankers with clients all over the country.
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I don't want to be a didactic voice. I like to ask more questions than I answer, just to get people thinking and to make it safe to access art.
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I thank my dad for leaving me such a wonderful, wonderful heritage.
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The Negro revolution is controlled by foxy white liberals, by the Government itself. But the Black Revolution is controlled only by God.
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I joined an acting class in my junior year in high school. I'd always wanted to try it.
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Which is not to discount everything I've done in my past; everything I have learned tremendously from.
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I have made the most profound apology in front of the Truth Commission and on other occasions about the injustices which were wrought by apartheid.
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Jesus, when he was on Earth, he was out there helping people, right? Why did he perform those miracles? To call attention to his profession. Why do you think I do these incredible feats? To call attention to my profession!
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John and I felt that we were like people in an H. G. Wells story. Two people who are walking so fast that nobody else can see them.
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The lesson one can learn from Firbank is that of inconsequence. There is the vein which he tapped and which has not yet been fully exploited.
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I really feel that most things are difficult at the beginning and they become fun, something you love, only after you've worked at them. Making children do something hard can, in the long run, be a great parental service.
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Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle.
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That balance between involvement and detachment is what novelists do. It's the ideal relationship between a novelist and a character, I think, total involvement and identity and empathy, stopping short of being autobiographical - in my case, anyway - but also quite detached.
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I've been quite involved in a lot of U.N. operations over the years. I was a U.N. observer at the East Timor referendum in 2000. I've been very involved in that for a long time.
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There are a bunch of different movies I feel that way about. However, there is a debate because as you may know after MST3K ended there have been things like Cinematic Titanic that are the children and the grandchildren of this way of dissecting movies and making fun of them and in a way celebrating the absurdity of those movies as well. There are certain movies that sort of fit into the MST3K paradigm which is hidden gems, these weird horror/sci-fi/fantasy movies.
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At the end of the day, what would be a Canadian sensibility? Is it Michael Ondaatje? Alice Munro? Is Margaret Atwood more Canadian than Neil Bissoondath?