“I was given the illusion of power while the real deciders had private calls without me, and you can only be undermined so many times on an adaptation of your own life before you start… Read More
“My thought is always, ‘It’s only downhill from here.’ That’s how I’ve always operated, ever since I began Family Guy. I had the crippling fear that I used up all the funny last week. That crippling… Read More
“The sea can swallow ships, and it can spit out whales like watermelon seeds. It will take what it wants, and it will keep what it has taken, and you may not take away from… Read More
In early 1986, the British TV series Yes, Prime Minister aired a scene that remains stunningly relevant with its lessons about political manipulation, polling, media literacy and public policy. The series was a sequel to… Read More
“Masterpieces are only lucky attempts.”— George Sand The French writer George Sand — born Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil, she adopted a pen name and a style for dressing to put her as an… Read More
“The world of fantasy fills the gaps in people’s knowledge.”— Fred Vargas The French archaeologist Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau is better known to the world as the crime writer Fred Vargas. My father loved her novels and… Read More
“Grief is a cruel kind of education. You learn how ungentle mourning can be, how full of anger. You learn how glib condolences can feel. You learn how much grief is about language, the failure… Read More
“Imagination is the highest kite that can fly.” — Lauren Bacall Lauren Bacall wrote these words for her memoir, which was published first as By Myself in 1978, and then revised and published in 2005… Read More
“The kind of people who always go on about whether a thing is in good taste invariably have very bad taste.”– Joe Orton The playwright Joe Orton said these words during an interview published in… Read More
“I always find there’s a kind of serendipity to research. I’m a generalist, so one of the things that compels me to a story is addressing my own ignorance.”— David Grann I came across this… Read More
While you sleep, what’s in easy reach? It likely includes a lamp, something to read, your phone charger or maybe a glass of water. When RCMP searched a house in St. John’s recently, they found… Read More
“That’s what books are, they’re containers for memory. They’re containers for the stories of the past. It’s an artifact that allows you to communicate with the past… I would imagine most writers have this sense… Read More
“It is good for a man to invite his ghosts into his warm interior, out of the wild night, into the firelight, out of the howling dark.”— A.S. Byatt Antonia Susan Byatt is best known… Read More
“While it’s fun to watch James Bond kick ass, we don’t really identify with him. Most people — myself included — feel overwhelmed by life from time to time. And we can more easily understand… Read More
“To make mistakes is natural, but to go to one’s grave without having understood them is to make life a pointless exercise.”— Susanna Tamaro This bit of wisdom is from the novelist Susanna Tamaro’s Follow… Read More