Robertson Davies
Robertson Davies
William Robertson Davies, CC, OOnt, FRSC, FRSLwas a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies is variously said to have gladly accepted for himself and to have detested. Davies was the founding Master of Massey College, a graduate residential college associated with the University of Toronto...
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth28 August 1913
political conservatism conserving
Their very conservatism is secondhand, and they don't know what they are conserving.
quality world
We live in a world where bulk is equated with quality.
book junk language
You would not serve junk food at a banquet, and your book must be a banquet. Get your language from Swift , not from Shopsy's.
past audience-of-one long
In my collection, to me at least, the theatre of the past lives again and those long-dead playwrights and actors have in me an enthralled audience of one, and I applaud them across the centuries.
infinite possibility humans
After all, we are human beings, and not creatures of infinite possibilities.
people saint havens
People are not saints just because they haven't got much money or education.
realizing delighted primaries
Happiness is a by-product. It is not a primary product of life. It is a thing which you suddenly realize you have because you're so delighted to be doing something which perhaps has nothing whatever to do with happiness.
running fun people
Humour very often consists of shrewd perceptions about people. It's usually fun at someone's expense. Nowadays if you're funny at anybody's expense they run to the UN and say, "I must have an ombudsman to protect me." You hardly dare have a shrewd perception about anybody.
fighting thinking people
I think we're living in an age which despises humanity and despises bravery and doesn't need bravery because modern warfare has rather gone beyond bravery. It is a kind of warfare where people are fighting enemies they never see, killing people of whom they know nothing.
spirit clarity characteristics
Clarity is not a characteristic of the human spirit.
children tyrants crowns
Whoever declares a child to be "delicate" thereby crowns and anoints a tyrant.
homosexual wells
here are some homosexuals whom we would do well to take seriously.
distance drama writing
Great drama, drama that may reach the alchemical level, must have dimension and its relevance will take care of itself. Writing about AIDS rather than the cocktail set, or possibly the fairy kingdom, will not guarantee importance. . . . The old comment that all periods of time are at an equal distance from eternity says much, and pondering on it will lead to alchemical theatre while relevance becomes old hat.
stupid father important
Like it or not, to reach middle age with less money or less prestige than our father had is somewhat to lose face. Stupid of course, when put like that, but who is prepared to argue that we are not stupid in several important ways?