I wanted to forget the past, but it refused to forget me; it waited for sleep, then cornered me.

Gravity works in your life, the notion of free will works in your life, however problematic it may at times be.

The characters [of The Tempest] have always been favorites of mine. It is one of his meditations on art - what it does.

I saw all of the films [based on The Tempest] available, including the one with Helen Mirren in which Prospero is Prospera - you wonder, "Would it work?" But it does, because anything she does works.

Canadians and Americans may look alike, but the contents of their heads are quite different. Americans experience themselves, individually, as small toads in the biggest and most powerful puddle in the world. Their sense of power comes from identifying with the puddle. Canadians as individuals may have more power within the puddle, since there are fewer toads in it; it's the puddle that's seen as powerless.

He stops, looks up at this window, and I can see the white oblong of his face. We look at each other. I have no rose to toss, he has no lute. But it's the same kind of hunger.

And consider: it is loss to which everything flows, absence in which everything flowers