I was born in the Ottawa General Hospital right after the Gray Cup Football Game in 1939. Six months later, I was backpacked into the Quebec bush. I grew up in and out of the bush, in and out of Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie and Toronto.

Write down the thoughts and even more, write down a specific line. If you don't, it'll fly away forever.

Sometimes reactions can be quite surprising: readers like things that you, the author, feel you've barely gotten away with; or they dislike one of the parts you secretly think is one of your little gems.

You're never going to kill storytelling, because it's built into the human plan. We come with it.

All fiction is about people, unless it's about rabbits pretending to be people. It's all essentially characters in action, which means characters moving through time and changes taking place, and that's what we call 'the plot'.

Even an obvious fabrication is some comfort when you have few others.

What is the real breath of a man — the breathing out or the breathing in?