Quotes by Mordecai Richler

All the same, it strikes me as unfair that I still have to defend myself against her moral judgements. My continuing need for her approbation is pathetic. Twice now I have stopped myself on the street to remonstrate with her, a crazy old coot talking to himself.

We could never agree about Boogie and I didnt share Miriams reverence for professors. In fact, just in case I havent mentioned it before, the pride of my office wall is my framed high-school graduation certificate, lit from above. Miriam has reproached me for it. Take it down, darling, she once pleaded. But it still hangs there.

Ernst was still in the Eastern Zone, about ninety kilometres from Berlin, when the truck emerged so inexplicably out of nowhere that it seemed to have been created by the rain itself.

...if I were an angel of the Lord, I would mark the doors of each of my childrens homes with an X, so that plague and misfortune would pass over them. Alas, I lack the qualifications. So when there was still world and time enough I fretted. I nagged. I corrected. I got everything wrong.

Obviously the raven with the unquenchable itch was at it again, playing tricks on the world and its creatures. Once by air, he thought, and now by water.

One final thought. In the years leading up to my trial, whenever I was caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the highway leading to my cottage, creeping along behind a battered, rust eaten pick-up truck with a sticker on its rear bumper that read JESUS SAVES, I used to think dont count on it, buster. Now I am no longer sure.

Actually when it comes to knocking the Canadian cultural scene nobody outdoes Canadians myself included. We are veritable masters of self-deprecation.

Listen your Lordship Im a respecter of institutions. Even in Paris I remained a Canadian. I puffed hashish but I didnt inhale.

There are ten commandments right? Well its like an exam. You get eight out of ten youre just about top of the class.

I work every day-or at least I force myself into my office or room. I may get nothing done but you dont earn bonuses without putting in time. Nothing may come for three months but you dont earn the fourth without it.

I work every day-or at least I force myself into my office or room. I may get nothing done but you dont earn bonuses without putting in time. Nothing may come for three months but you dont get the fourth without it.

Wherever I travel Im too late. The orgy has moved elsewhere.

I work every day - or at least I force myself into office or room. I may get nothing done but you dont earn bonuses without putting in time. Nothing may come for three months but you dont earn the fourth without it.

Fundamentally all writing is about the same thing: its about dying about the brief flicker of time we have here and the frustrations that it creates.