When I die, nieces, I want to be cremated, my ashes taken up in a bush plane and sprinkled onto the people in town below. Let them think my body is snowflakes, sticking in their hair and on their shoulders like dandruff.

During World War I the Canadians were the shock troops. In many historical cases, Canadians have been very proficient at killing, and doing what we have to in order to survive. But no one wants to acknowledge that fact.

I never want to play down to the reader. I think readers are willing to go along if they're intrigued.

We aren't the masters of the earth. We're the servants.

The history needs to serve the story, not the story the history. But at the same time you can't stray too far.

The beliefs of Native people are no less powerful or important just because they focus on a different "form of magic."

Sometimes, it's not getting what we want that offers us the most important Lessons