“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
“Manuscript: something submitted in haste and returned at leisure.”— Oliver Herford The quote of the day is about something freelancers will know well. It’s also, alas, a bit of an anachronism. Gifted in multiple ways… Read More
Winter is a good time to read. Can’t get around much anymore, to tweak the Duke Ellington standard. I always love seeing people’s reading suggestions (my want-to-read list is hellaciously long), and I thought it… Read More
“The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet.”— Adrienne Rich The poet Adrienne Rich had a long writing career and a… Read More
Bald as I am, I don’t give a lot of thought to hairstyle ideas. But the concept has very much been on my mind lately, because of an inundating number of ads for AI-powered apps… Read More
“I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading; since, as you will agree, one book is only a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten others… Read More
Adam Walsh and I scratched another one for the books today, with the monthly trivia show for CBC Radio’s The Signal. You can listen to the whole thing right here. I thought it might be… Read More
“The test of a cook is how she boils an egg. My boiled eggs are fantastic, fabulous. Sometimes as hard as a 100 carat diamond, or again soft as a feather bed, or running like… Read More
“It’s an odd pairing. I’ve always loved the audience, but from a distance. Once you’ve elicited a strong response from an audience, you want it again. That kind of an energy is as addictive as… Read More