Timothy Findley

“We lose ourselves in books. We find ourselves there, too.”

“When you're a child, you're the centre of your own universe.”

“War is a presence on the page, in the home, in the heart, and is always contemporary.”

“You learn to write by writing. You learn to be a writer by writing.”

“The spaces between the perceiver and the thing perceived can... be closed with a shout of recognition.”

“Look. You can see the heart. And it is not made of stone.”

“I think every person has a silent space within them, a place where they can go and just be themselves.”

“The act of creation is a rebellion against the silence.”

“Animals are the messengers of the gods.”

“Memory is a beast that can be tamed, but never truly domesticated.”

“Failure is a word I don't accept.”

“We are what we are because of what we have been.”

“All I have written is the truth. But of course, the truth is a matter of conviction.”

“The telling of a story is the oldest and most honourable of the arts.”