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

People will say that Canada, unlike America, was not birthed from violence. But I want to say, "What are you talking about?" It's just not true.

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.

There's the concept that dreams are as important - if not more important - than reality. The attention that one pays to those things in the shadows is very much a part of the Indian experience.

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

We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the one facing what we do to the enemy.

Canada and America are very, very different. It's true that we share a language and many customs. But Americans have a very different view of the world.