Alden Nowlan

“And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.”

“To be a Canadian is to be aware of the fact that you are not an American.”

“The country is the world of the soul, the city is the world of the mind.”

“It's a great loneliness when you lose your delusions.”

“I write poems for the same reason that a dog barks.”

“Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.”

“A poem is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful.”

“The man who is not afraid to say that he is afraid is a brave man.”

“It's so easy to be a genius in your own room. The hard part is to be a genius in someone else's room.”

“If I have a book in my hands, I don't have to talk to anyone.”

“Look, I'm a peasant. I'm a goddamn peasant. I'm not a gentleman. And I don't want to be.”

“I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I'm not that fond of my own mind.”

“The only sure thing is that nothing is sure.”

“The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.”