Women from Canada

"Do you know whose colors these are? [...] These are the colors of the whore of Babylon. Red and purple."

"Ophelia is a little walking owl, bewitched by her unconscious feminine, her father, and what "they say." She never finds her own voice. She never finds her own body or her own feelings and therefore misses life and love in the here and now. Gradually the waters of the unconscious to which she is "native and indued" swallow her."

"If in later life she has mastered her hunger drive by ego control, she may assume that she can control her fate herself. But that ego may in fact be very weak, because it has been built by cutting herself off from the mainstream of life through severe dieting. It is built on negative rather than positive need. In a real life crisis, such an ego may fail to operate because she does not know consciously what her own needs are. [...] An ego which sets itself up against Fate is attempting to usurp the power of the Self; it swings from light to dark, from inflation to depression. Only when her ego is firmly rooted in her own feminine feeling can a woman be released from her compulsive behavior."

"Her [an anorexic's] natural bent is towards perfection, purification, aesthetics. Her ideal is to remove all the superficial veils until only essence is left."

"The confusion of spirit and body is quite understandable in a culture where spirit is concretized in magnificent skyscrapers, where cathedrals have become museums for tourists, where woman-flesh-devil are associated, and nature is raped for any deplorable excuse. [...] Dieting with fierce will-power is the masculine route; dieting with love of her own nature is the feminine. Her only real hope is to care for her own body and experience it as the vessel through which her Self may be born."

"Serious drinkers are like serious eaters or serious noneaters. They are like serious drug-addicts. Their addiction holds a spell over them which acts as some powerful secret at the center of everything they do. The serious eater listens to others talking of diets, Weight Watchers, exercises; she hears them excitedly comparing pounds lost, pounds gained. She hears them encouraging each other, joking, consoling. She is not one of them. She knows the diets better than they do; she knows Weight Watchers is useless for her; she knows her life is on some Almighty Scale that she has to step on alone. She is in some covenant with food — a covenant which she probably does not understand, but which nevertheless exerts some magical, compelling power over her. She hates it; she loves it; she keeps her covenant silent."

"Their [those with eating disorders'] task is to rescue themselves from a drive that is destroying them. Food embodies the false values that their own bodies refuse to assimilate, by which I mean that their bodies become edemic, bloated, allergic, or resort to vomiting the poison out. The unconscious body, and certainly the conscious body, will not tolerate the negative mother."

"We live in a predominately Christian culture which has lost its living connection to the symbolism of wafer and wine. Lacking spiritual sustenance there is a genuine hunger and thirst. The archetypal structure behind the wafer and wine is slowly giving way to a new configuration, but we are in chaos during the transition. That chaos breeds loneliness, fear and alienation. While that sense of aloneness is hard to endure, it can be of supreme value in the analytic process. The new life always comes out of the dispossessed, as Christ came from the cow stable."

"Living by principles is not living your own life. It is easier to try to be better than you are than to be who you are. If you are trying to live by ideals, you are constantly plagued by a sense of unreality. Somewhere you think there must be some joy; it can't be all "must," "ought to," "have to." And when the crunch comes, you have to recognize the truth: you weren't there. Then the house of cards collapses."

"For the first time in history, men and women are seriously exploring the possibilities of relationships based on separateness rather than togetherness. Instead of clinging to Yahweh, to a rigid set of laws established by a jealous Father-God who will rant in fury if he is disobeyed, they are simply ignoring that ranting, walking away from it, and attempting to put their trust in the irrational. In other words, they are trying to live by the spirit."

"The whole, however, had become more than the sum of its parts. The parts concentrate on the periods in the chrysalis when life as we have known it is over. No longer who we were, we know not who we may become. We experience ourselves as living mush, fearful of the journey down the birth canal. The whole has to do with the process of psychological pregnancy—the virgin forever a virgin, forever pregnant, forever open to possibilities."

"The puella mother who has never taken up residence in her own body, and therefore fears her own chthonic nature, is not going to experience pregnancy as a quiet meditation with her unborn child, nor birth as a joyful bonding experience. Although she may go through the motions of natural childbirth, the psyche/soma split in her is so deep that physical bonding between her and her baby daughter does not take place. Her child lives with a profound sense of despair, a despair which becomes conscious if in later years she does active imagination with her body and releases waves of grief and terror that resonate with the initial, primal rejection. [...] The body that appears in dreams wrapped in fire, encircled by a black snake or encumbered by a fish tail from the waist down, may be holding a death-wish too deep for tears."

"Body work must be approached with the same respect and attentiveness that one gives to dreams. The body has a wisdom of its own. However slowly and circuitously that wisdom manifests, once it is experienced it is a foundation, a basis of knowing that gives confidence and total support to the ego. To reach its wisdom requires absolute concentration: dropping the mind into the body, breathing into whatever is ready to be released, and allowing the process of expression until the negative, dammed energy is out, making room for the positive energy, genuine Light, to flood in."

"For years they have known they are in the presence of something stronger than they—a mystery that renders them powerless. Already constellated is a "god consciousness"—awesome and holy—that has nothing to do with the church or with groups. They know they have to engage in a different arena of reality. That arena is the psyche. By virtue of their temperament, training, consciousness, these women are blessed (or cursed) with an introspective nature, an exploring mind, an invincible curiosity about themselves which connects them to their own inner microscope. For better or for worse, they are convinced that the solution to their lives is in submission not to an externally imposed authority which they cannot understand, but to a truth that abides in themselves."

"In a culture whose media extols thinness as the great panacea that will bring happiness, sexuality, self-respect and social acceptance, they are blind to the insidious lies of the false goddess. Possessed by their own damaged instincts, and ironically driven by the same desire for power that their parents used in raising them, some children wolf down food, or reject it, or vomit it out. Whether that rejection of life is concretized in 200 pounds of armor, or 90 pounds of bone, or vomit in the toilet, the surest way out of the neurosis is to try to understand what food symbolizes in the individual psyche and why the energy is pulled in that direction."

"Although the patriarchal ego prides itself on being reasonable, the twentieth century has been anything but the Age of Reason. In our collective neurosis, we have raped the earth, disrupted the delicate balance of nature, and created phallic missiles of mass destruction."

"She faces us with our greatest fear and by showing us the treasure hidden away within it, she takes us to a place where love is born. Love is the true antithesis of fear. It expands where fear constricts. It embraces where fear repels."

"Metaphorically, the body becomes a machine to be driven or a garbage dump to be avoided. At the same time, the magnificent Mother in whose womb we live is mindlessly poisoned and raped. Surely, our insane denial has to be perceived and acted upon."

"In the Seventies, people discussed the first two paradigms and tried to imagine what the next one would be like. Generally, they agreed that the new paradigm would be neither matriarchal nor patriarchal; it would be androgynous. Rather than tribal or hierachial, the structures of such a society would be ecological."

"This is the point where love becomes possible. We see the other with the eye of the heart, an eye not clouded by fear manifesting as need, jealousy, possessiveness, or manipulation. With the unclouded eye of the heart, we can see the other as other. We can rejoice in the other, challenge the other, and embrace the other without losing our own center or taking anything away from the other. We are always other to each other — soul meeting soul, the body awakened with joy. To love unconditionally requires no contracts, bargains, or agreements. Love exists in the moment-to-moment flux of life."

""What's this Chungian analyst?" he asked. "Five years' training in Zurich at the C. G. Jung Institute," I said. "Jung was a student of Freud until they quarreled." "Oh, yes," he said. "Dreams and all that kind of thing." I felt his dismissal; I made no response."

"Dark underbelly to all of this. Sarajevo, where the [Olympic] Games were held in '84, is under threat. The UN and NATO have ordered the Serbs to have their big guns off the surrounding hills by midnight, February 20. All the love that is being manifested in these Games was once manifested in Sarajevo. The cameras pan across the great stadium — bombed out, an empty shell. [...] Ten years ago, all that glory gleamed in the center of what is now a cemetery for the dead killed in a ferocious attack. What sense does it make?"

"Unable to do anything for a month after the ordeal. No more cancer. No more radiation. My doctor pronounced me clear on March 29. Felt the crucifixion this year, and the tomb, and Easter Sunday. Still not sure who has emerged."

"Dismissing poetry is dismissing the glory of the imagination. Teaching English to adolescents for twenty years gives me the authority to say, "Kill the imagination and you kill the soul. Kill the soul and you're left with a listless, apathetic creature who can become hopeless or brutal or both. Kill the metaphor and you kill desire; the image magnetizes the movement of the energy." I will make this clear as I speak. The tax money that is being withdrawn from arts programs in schools will be spent on prisons."

"Thank you, dear Sophia. From every cell in my broken body, my radiant body, I thank you. I am alive. I am free... to live... to die."

"Honor your humanness and all of your feelings - the messy ones, the growing pains, the ache - because we can't have the dark without the light."

"The more I look around and listen I realize that I'm not alone. We are all facing choices that define us. No choice. However messy is without importance in the overall picture of our lives. We all at our own age have to claim something, even if it's only our own confusion. I am in the middle of growing up and into myself."

"I think God leaves me alone to let me find my own strength because no one else can give it to me. Sometimes it is very lonely. But I know the lonely times teach me the most. I must let go in order to let anything in. No one can love me, for me. Take a big walk protected in the trees. I miss the time before today."

"What we don't let out traps us. We think, "No one else feels this way, I must be crazy." So we don't say anything. And we become enveloped by a deep loneliness, not knowing where our feelings come from or what to do with them. "Why do I feel this way? Last week, I was on top of the world and now my feelings don't make sense." Voicing it, getting it out and letting it other people hear it, helps to dissipate it. The fears and self-criticisms begin to leak. And we begin to heal."

"May Sarton said, "the deeper you go, the more universal you become." It's a reminder to me that those things I try to convince myself I don't need to admit are usually those things I need the most to say. Speaking the truth, in its most poignant details, is liberating and gives those around us the freedom to be real."

"Night my banner, and my herald Fear."

"My religion makes no sense and does not help me therefore I pursue it."

"She doesn't get to say much in the official biography — I believe they are out of wine, etc., practical things — watching with one eye as he goes about the world calling himself The Son Of Man."

"while the shadows like long fingers over the haystacks that sweep past keep shocking him because he is riding backwards."

"In my opinion, people in our society are becoming like clones. Children are not reading books , and they are not learning by doing. They're just sitting and watching each other be pretty. Like my vases."

"As with respect to viewers, I must say that gallery-viewing is increasingly becoming more of a fashion than a love. Many of the openings have turned into exhibitions of pompousness. Also, there are groups of viewers that enter galleries with their already formed judgments. Amidst all these there are also groups that show absolutely no reaction towards the works, these are the worst. They are neither approving nor disapproving. A smaller percentage constitutes honest art-lovers who ask questions, and their views are worthwhile and they inspire real energy in an artist."

"Poetical spaces too can be painted like a vase."

"I never have restricted myself into a frame of a particular technique. My techniques are determined simultaneously along with the subjects of my works. It is similar to the works of a poet, the form of a poem is determined at the same time as its content."

"Some say it appears that painting has come to an end. I say the problem is that the painters' curiosity has come to an end, and this is more observable in the West and not in the East, since in the East there are plenty of untouched and unexplored spaces that could still inspire an artist as sources of creativity."

"These days there are painters that go inside a factory in order to be inspired by the noise of machines, so that it affects their works. Of course, artists need sensibility; sensibility towards their environment and their community, but when they are stirred enough by their experiences in their society they can create their art in small studios."

"As for the value of color I am close to the philosophy of Fauvists: Matisse, Raoul Dufy, and Vlaminck. In other words, color for me is the most important constituent of painting. The composition and form extract themselves from the depth of color. My colors are the spirit of my paintings. For example, when the space is sad it is my pallet of colors that convey this sadness first."

"Seurat and Signac mixed paintings with the dry and abstract laws of science. This approach, in my opinion, usually strays from the purpose of art in general. Because it means that one cannot expect from an artifact, that is created with mathematical laws, to establish an improbable and irrational relationship between the work and the viewer."

"If I were the type of artist that didn't care whether or not my works communicated with viewers then I wouldn't bother exhibiting them, I might as well stock them in a warehouse. But I do exhibit and I do care because I want to communicate back to the viewer what I've viewed. My paintings are inspired by my homeland's traditional spaces. My colors are the colors of monasteries and mosques, the color of ruins of Sassanid and Seljuq era, colors of Bazaars of Isfahan and Shiraz, and colors of northern-Iran's ceramics. I have sensed all these colors, forms and everything within my painting's frame from the viewer's own world."

"I am biased towards the belief that every painter must be grounded in strong and faultless drawing skills, and until one has not experimented with all styles of painting and has not comprehended their potentialities one's work is not complete. Even an abstract painter must know how to draw as well as a figurative artist. As for me, drawing has never created any problem, since I know how to draw anatomy correctly if I had to, I understand the function of muscle groups and sculpture."

"In my paintings, the question on whether figures are similar or not is not of any importance, the slightest change of figure or color can create a new painting and it doesn't really matter if a subject is revisited by an artist repeatedly. With enough time in between paintings, an artist can always bring to it something new."

"I love to experiment with all styles, and do not have any particular prejudice or bias towards any specific style. These works appear, and they turn out, the way they should. I do not decide in what style I want to paint. I am only experimenting. Even Picasso, when he arrived at Cubism, had already experimented with a lot of other styles."

"I believe any philosophizing about art is absurd and empty. Unfortunately, in the last century a phenomenon has emerged in which the status of “work of art” were granted to many foolish, tacky, and distasteful works as long as they were accompanied by ten or twelve pages of philosophizing justification."

"It must be said that an authentic work of art needs no philosophical justification. In principle, if Philosophical Treatises could explain a work of art then there would be no justification for the existence of that work art. Put it differently, a work of art precisely enters into the scene when philosophy and other experimental sciences are inept of representing or elucidating an artistic vision."

"As Amish say "There is a vast difference between putting your nose in other people's business and putting your heart in other people's problems,” and there is also a vast difference between using the ‘grammar of language’ and the ‘grammar of painting’. In a language we have subjects, adjectives, verbs, and so on, and in painting we have light, composition, geometric planes, and lines. It is by using this grammar that one can understand a work of art. This is very similar to Ferdinand Saussure’s, distinction between “la langue” and “la parole” for interpretation of written words."

"How would you explain Manet’s '? Yes, you may say that the mirror in the back of the barmaid, like Plato’s , shows that the reflections in the mirror are as close as the viewers get to viewing reality, which is mixed up with the inner reality of the barmaid, her reflection in the mirror, and her own picture in front of the viewer and image of Manet himself as the painter and as the creator of that painting in that mirror. Yet we know that this picture cannot be real since the artist cannot simultaneously be painting the picture and be steering at the barmaid in the guise of a client in the picture. Since, if the picture shows the true reality the mirror must reflect the painter performing the act of painting! Explanations like these are, of course, stating the obvious. The truth pf this painting is all revealed at that very moment in which it connects with the subconscious of the viewers. Manet does not want to warn his viewers that “look! I am showing you the illusion of picturing reality in painting”. If he really wanted to give such a warning he would have written such a warning underneath his work, pretty much the same way that wrote '. But, even Magritte’s warning is not that clear! What is not a pipe, that illustration of a pipe? If so, then that is obvious, and what is the point of stating the obvious? Perhaps Magritte like Ferdinand de Saussure wants to say there is a difference between the pipe as a ‘signifier’ and the pipe as a ‘signified’. As I stated the grammar of painting is different from the grammar of language."

"The pronouncements by Hegel and Nietzsche, on "the End of Art" and "the Death of God" ignited the fad of Endism in the western culture in the final century of the last millennium. Daniel Bell 's "The End of Ideology" (1960), Martin Heidegger's "The End of Philosophy" (1973), Theodore J. Lowpdi's "The End of Liberalism" (1979), Arthur Danto's "the End of Art" (1984), Bill McKibben's "The End of Nature" (1989), Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History" (1992), Kenichi Ohmae's "The End of the Nation State" (1996), Jorie Graham 's "The End of Beauty" (1999), Chris Dillow's "The End of Politics” (2007) were just some of such seemingly endless stream of "endings", which made one wonders that at such high rate will there anything be left for a future ending!"

"It is easy to start a war, but its end is decided by will-o-the-wisp, which is so effective in deceiving travelers on this road!"

"A hero; in our dark, indifferent and cruel universe is the one who makes life bearable and meaningful for human condition."

"If Marx were still alive, he would write: “Social networks are the opium of nations!"

"Performance of the violinist -- it's all in the interpretation and all the virtuosity comes out of the context of the interpretation!"

"...the wild flowers blooming in hushed solitude Start not at the whispering, 'tis but the breeze"

"How hushed and still are earth and air, How lanquid 'neath the sun's firece ray- Drooping and faint flowers fair, On this hot, sultry, summer day!"

"Thy soft-breathed hopes with magic might Have chased from my soul the shades of night"

"August is laughing across the sky, Laughing, while paddle, canoe and I Drift, drift, Where the hills uplift On either side of the current swift."

"The pine trees whispering, the heron's cry, The plover's passing wing, his lullaby."

"Sleep, with her tender balm, her touch so kind,  Has passed me by; Afar I see her vesture, velvet-lined,  Float silently; O! Sleep, my tired eyes had need of thee! Is thy sweet kiss not meant to-night for me?"

"The horse, Bernstein, was missing half his tail, because the first cello had just restrung his bow last week."

"“Hell is other actors,” Kirsten said. “Also ex-boyfriends.”"

"The journalist is beautiful in the manner of people who spend an immense amount of money on personal maintenance. She has professionally refined pores and a four-hundred-dollar haircut, impeccable makeup and tastefully polished nails. When she smiles, Arthur is distracted by the unnatural whiteness of her teeth, although he’s been in Hollywood for years and should be used to it by now."

"It’s possible that no one who didn’t grow up in a small place can understand how beautiful this is, how the anonymity of city life feels like freedom."

"She is beautiful in a way that makes people forget what they were going to say when they look at her."

"Tesch seems to be someone who mistakes rudeness for intellectual rigor."

"Miranda is aware of how pretentious this sounds, but is it still pretentious if it’s true?"

"“Why would he marry a twelve-year-old?” “He had a dream where God told him he was to repopulate the earth.” “Of course he did,” the clarinet said. “Don’t they all have dreams like that?” “Right, I always thought that was a prerequisite for being a prophet,” Sayid said."

"“They call themselves the light.” “What about it?” “If you are the light,” she said, “then your enemies are darkness, right?” “I suppose.” “If you are the light, if your enemies are darkness, then there’s nothing that you cannot justify. There’s nothing you can’t survive, because there’s nothing that you will not do.”"

"Hell is the absence of the people you long for."

"Twenty-third Street wasn’t busy—a little early for the lunch crowd—but he kept getting trapped behind iPhone zombies, people half his age who wandered in a dream with their eyes fixed on their screens."

"“I’m a man of my word,” Jeevan said. At that point in his directionless life he wasn’t sure if this was true or not, but it was nice to think that it might be."

"Frank standing on a stool on his wondrously functional pre-Libya legs, the bullet that would sever his spinal cord still twenty-five years away but already approaching: a woman giving birth to a child who will someday pull the trigger on a gun, a designer sketching the weapon or its precursor, a dictator making a decision that will spark in the fullness of time into the conflagration that Frank will go overseas to cover for Reuters, the pieces of a pattern drifting closer together."

"“I just want them to know that it happened for a reason.” “Look, Tyler, some things just happen.” This close, the stillness of the ghost plane was overwhelming. “But why did they die instead of us?” the boy asked, with an air of patiently reciting a well-rehearsed argument. His gaze was unblinking. “Because they were exposed to a certain virus, and we weren’t. You can look for reasons, and god knows a few people here have driven themselves half-crazy trying, but Tyler, that’s all there is.” “What if we were saved for a different reason?” “Saved?” Clark was remembering why he didn’t talk to Tyler very often. “Some people were saved. People like us.” “What do you mean, ‘people like us’?” “People who were good,” Tyler said.”People who weren’t weak.” “Look, it’s not a question of having been bad or...the people in there, in the Air Gradia jet, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”"

"She tried to keep this opinion to herself and occasionally succeeded."

"He found he was a man who repented almost everything, regrets crowding in around him like moths to a light. This was actually the main difference between twenty-one and fifty-one, he decided, the sheer volume of regret."

"Sometimes you don’t know you’re going to throw a grenade until you’ve already pulled the pin."

"If there’s pleasure in action, there’s peace in stillness."

"This whole place is death. No, that’s unfair—this place isn’t death, this place is indifference. This place is utterly neutral on the question of whether he lives or dies; it doesn’t care about his last name or where he went to school; it hasn’t even noticed him."

"“My secret is, I hate people,” the woman said, very sincerely, and for the first time Mirella liked her. “All people?” “All except maybe like three,” she said."

"What is time travel if not a security problem?"

"Everything offended Jessica, which is inevitable when you move through the world in search of offense."

"“You know the phrase I keep thinking about?” a poet asked, on a different panel, at a festival in Copenhagen. “‘The chickens are coming home to roost.’ Because it’s never good chickens. It’s never ‘You’ve been a good person and now your chickens are coming home to roost.’ It’s never good chickens. It’s always bad chickens.”"

"Isn’t that reality? Won’t most of us die in fairly unclimactic ways, our passing unremarked by almost everyone, our deaths becoming plot points in the narratives of the people around us?"

"She never dwelt on my lapses, and I couldn’t entirely parse why this made me feel so awful. There’s a low-level, specific pain in having to accept that putting up with you requires a certain generosity of spirit in your loved ones."

"There occurred an incident that struck me at the time as some kind of supernatural event, but seems to me in retrospect to have been perhaps some kind of fit."

"I would rather do a dangerous job than a job that makes me comatose with boredom."

"What you have to understand is that bureaucracy is an organism, and the prime goal of every organism is self-protection. Bureaucracy exists to protect itself."

"It’s shocking to wake up in one world and find yourself in another by nightfall, but the situation isn’t actually all that unusual. You wake up married, then your spouse dies over the course of the day; you wake up in peacetime and by noon your country is at war; you wake up in ignorance and by the evening it’s clear that a pandemic is already here."

"“Maybe you’re right. Turns out reality is more important than we thought,” Dion said."

"My point is, there’s always something. I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we’re living at the climax of the story. It’s a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we’re uniquely important, that we’re living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it’s ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world."

"“But all of this raises an interesting question,” Olive said. “What if it always is the end of the world?” She paused for effect. Before her, the holographic audience was almost perfectly still. “Because we might reasonably think of the end of the world,” Olive said, “as a continuous and never-ending process.”"

"If definitive proof emerges that we’re living in a simulation, the correct response to that news will be So what. A life lived in a simulation is still a life."

"[About her vegan diet] I guess I'm a very compassionate person so hearing about animal abuse kind of triggered something in me that maybe I should try it… I'm really into health and fitness and wellness, so this kind of tied into it. I thought I was just going to do it until the (2010) Olympics, but then I didn't go to the Olympics, and then I ended up liking it so much, I think I'll be a vegan for the rest of my life. … My energy is so much better, I don't hit that wall at 2 o'clock or 3 o'clock in the afternoon, I sleep well, my skin is better, everything just feels well. And it transfers into my attitude, everything in my life has just become a lot calmer, everything I'm putting in me is clean and genuine and organic and in turn, the way I live my life has started to follow that path."

"The history of Acadians has never been written down as see by its people. Its been written by historians from outside. These historians sometimes had reason not to write the truth or didn't know the truth or didn't know the small things which become the big things, the inside story, what we in France call la petit histoire. History is made by the kings and lords, But la petit histoire is made by the people."

"Could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?"

"Florentine... Florentine Lacasse... half song, half squalor, half springtime, half misery,the young man murmured."

"We're saying that Germany wants to destroy us. And right now in Germany a whole lot of good quiet people like us, no worse than we are, they're getting whipped into a frenzy by the same story. They're being told the others are penning them into a country that's too small, and don't want to let them live. On one side or the other somebody's being sold a bill of goods. Maybe the Germans are wrong. We don't know. All I know is, I don't want to go killing some guy that never did me any harm, and who hasn't the choice but to do what he's told. I've got nothing against that poor guy. Why should I go and stick a bayonet into him? He wants to live, just like I do. He doesn't want to die."

"She too was standing in the lamp’s raw light. Her cheeks looked hollow, her lips too red, too bold."

"But Florentine was still riding the crest of her great wave...When it lifted her high she had to hold her breath. How could she ever again be bothered by these petty everyday cares? Would she ever again feel the old anxiety on hearing these dreadful midnight confidences, in the silence heavy with breathing? The wave that bore her was like a long, slow swell. There were hollows into which she sank with all her thoughts, all her willpower, where she was no more than a wing, a feather, a fringe, borne off ever faster, ever faster...He kissed me on the cheeks. On the eyes! "What's going to happen to us, Florentine? If your father's gone and lost his job again, we'll have to live on what you can give us, poor Florentine. We can always go back on relief..."

"The sun was already a bright, running brook. From the gables of the houses hung sharp-pointed icicles, like gleaming crystal. From time to time one would break off with a snap, and crash at Rose-Anne's feet in shining shards. She progressed very slowly, afraid of falling, always seeking a hand-hold somewhere. Then she would be in soft snow again, which meant harder work but less fear of a slip and fall."

"She moved slowly, and her coat, too tight, made her belly stick out more prominently. With the two dollars deep in her purse she wandered off, more uncertain than ever, for now she saw the shining pans and pots and the cloth, so soft to the touch. Her desires grew vast and many, and she left, poorer certainly than when she had come in the store."

"That was when she recognized love: this torture on seeing someone, the greater torture when he was out of sight, in short, a torture without end."

"Because you’d be running after your own unhappiness."

"On the windowpanes came rattling fistfuls of shot, and the snow whirled and sifted beneath ill-fitting doors, slid in the cracks of windowsills and searched in a frenzy for any refuge against the fury of the wind."

"...You and a lot of others like you wanted nothing more than a job and a bit of a salary just to keep the body and soul together. Instead of that you were doing, nothing and the rest of us who were making a dollar, well, we were paying for that. We paid to keep you doing nothing. In Canada, here, it got so the two-thirds of the population kept the other third idle!"

"Her shoulders sagging, her back hunched, her eyelids tired, Rose-Anna sewed for the feast, not daring even to sing for fear of frightening off her joy."

"He realized that Florentine personified this kind of wretched life against which his whole being was in revolt. And in the same moment he understood the feeling that drew him toward her: she was his own poverty, his solitude, his sad childhood, his lonely youth. She was all that he had hated, all that he had left behind him, but also everything that remained intimately linked to him, the most profound part of his nature and the powerful spur of his destiny."

"He [Jean] still felt surges of generosity, and gave in to them if they didn’t cramp his style. That was it. He could be kind if kindness caused him no problems."

"It began to rain harder. The last snow was under attack by these heavy, wide-spaced drops. All that remained underfoot of months of frost and freezing was a light crust that crumbled as he walked. The sidewalk was soon completely washed by this slow, tenacious rain. Its smooth, shining surface reflected the midnight lights and tangles of naked branches."

""That money," she cried, almost vehemently, "you can be sure I won’t lay a hand on it unless there’s terrible need." He looked away. He couldn’t bear to hear her talking about the rents and poverty. Would the two of them ever talk about anything else? Was that what he’d come home for? To hear more complaints? Outside people were hurrying past, almost racing toward the busy streets of town. Others were on their way to the movies. Girls were going out to meet their boyfriends. There was youth in the streets, and all of that was waiting for him."

"..."Would you wait for me?" he asked suddenly, his voice husky and low. "it's not right, but would you wait? Would you you wait till the world is cured again? A year? Two years? Maybe longer! Could you give me all that time, Florentine?" She pulled back from him, wary of his words. What did he mean? "Till the world cured..." What kind of talk was that? She was fearful of what she didn't understand, but felt at that moment she felt their destinies in her hand..."

"I'm (Eugene) probably goin' to be promoted, and it'll be more than twenty bucks you'll get then, you just wait. You'll have enough to live on, Ma (Rose-Anna). You won't have to scrape all your life, the rest of us'll see to that."

"Florentine had grown more or less immune to the charms of spring."

"Soon she saw the dining room light shining through the parted curtains. Its humble glow provoked a goodness in her heart that was no longer calculating or defiant, nor a kind of currency with which to barter and exchange; what she felt was an infinite, poignant affinity for this life that was her family’s. No longer did it seem harassed and restricting, but rather made beautiful from start to finish like a lighthouse beam before her. Home would take her in, home would cure her. Her hand on the doorknob, she paused for one long, ineffable moment. Then she pushed open the door. And it was as if an arctic wind chilled her frail efforts to make a fresh beginning."

"Rose-Anna was tugging at the edge of her apron with a tired, futile gesture she had never made in the past – the grandmother’s gesture."

"Running anywhere, blindly, hating the echo of her footsteps in the silence of the empty streets, Florentine fled from her own fear, fled from herself."

"Home! That was an old word, one of the first the children had ever learned. You used it without thinking, a hundred times a day. It had meant so many different things!..Home was an elastic word and even meaningless at times...."

"She understood at once, and with the courageous goodwill that sustained her, resigned herself to the fact: there was always a drawback. There had to be. Sometimes it was the lack of light, or a factory nearby, or not enough rooms. Here, it was a railroad."

"For a long time he stood at the window looking at the shining rails. They had always fascinated him. Squinting a little he saw them stretch away to infinity, carrying him off to his rediscovered youth."

"Why, this man seemed barely older than himself, Emmanuel thought. He gave off a sense of almost irresistible vigor. Quite simply, he had at last become a man..."

"Florentine was now no more than a bright patch on the platform. He managed to see her take out her compact and wipe away the few traces of her tears. He closed his eyes and, as if he were already very far away, cherished that image of Florentine and her powder puff. Then he searched the crowd one last time for her thin, small face and her burning eyes. But she had already turned her back to leave before the train was out of sight."

"Every moment of every day and night he was able to take the measure of his failure now. Even his family's poverty which for years he had refused to admit, began to grow familiar to him, but like the memory of a companion that one has left behind. Rose-Anna...She'd been a young girl at his side, then tired, then overwhelmed, and here she was sleeping beside him on a kind of pallet, on the floor. He could hear the whimpers from the children in their sleep."

"Peace has been as bad as war. Peace has killed as many people as war. Peace is as bad. Peace is as bad..."

"To make war, you had to be filled with love, with a vehement passion, exalted, intoxicated, otherwise the whole thing was inhuman and absurd."

"Finally anger took possession of him. It was his turn to ask the question already raised by so many others: We, down there, the ones who join up, we're giving everything we have to give, maybe our arms and our two legs. He looked up at the high grills, the curving driveways, the sumptuous facades, and completed his thought: Are these people giving all they have to give?"

"Where could you find a light to guide the world?"

"They could see the rapids on their right. The swaying of the bus made her sick and weak, and her willpower was failing with her strength. She was afraid of falling into a torpor in which everything would become immaterial to her, and she tensed in an effort to seem gay and even attentive to Emmanuel."

"Why did she have to wake up this morning? Or ever! But especially this morning. Her stare took on a glint of panic. Then she thought: Oh! This is my wedding day!"

"This is my wedding day! The day I marry Emmanuel! And the word "wedding," which she had always linked the happiness, now seemed austere, distressing, full of snares and revelations. She saw her mother, heavy and moving with difficulty. A vision of herself as a victim of the same deformity was vivid in her mind."

""Don’t preach," said Florentine violently. She was beginning to see the maze of lies and deceptions that lay before her."

"Azarius, for his part, had not made her voyage to the depths of pain to understand that death and birth, in that place, have almost the same tragic meaning."

"He seemed to be witnessing with his own eyes the supreme bankruptcy of humanity. Wealth had spoken the truth that night on the mountain."

"He saw a tree in a backyard, its branches tortured among electric wires and clotheslines, its leaves dry and shriveled before they were fully out. Low in the sky, dark clouds heralded the storm."

"The more the heart is sated with joy, the more it becomes insatiable."

"I think that’s the beauty of the Olympics. There’s always a story. There’s always someone you’re invested in. There are so many Olympic moments that resonate with people all across Canada, and I think that’s the beauty of it. We’re just one of those stories and we’re grateful for the support we’ve received."

"We know that as soon as our competition is done there’s another Canadian taking their place at the starting line or waiting to race. I think that’s what’s so powerful is that we’re just part of something bigger than us."

"They're a once-in-a-generation talent, that you don't see often."

"Simply put, there will never be another Virtue and Moir."

"So Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir solidified their legacy as perhaps the best ice dancing team the world has ever seen."

"We are best friends! I think our personalities balance one another extremely well — plus we know how to interact positively and productively with each other. We work hard at maintaining our partnership, but to be honest, it's just what we've come to know and depend on. I hardly remember my life without Scott!"

"This friendship and this bond that we share is, to us, the No. 1 priority."

"Our partnership is so much more than that, and in a lot of ways it’s so much better."

"It is a tough act to follow, for sure. As I’m hearing him talk through some of the things I’m realizing why our partnership works, because we both think the world of one another. Scott is the most disciplined, driven athlete I’ve ever met. There’s a fierce competitor deep within and the passion and the raw talent that is there — the ability to move and hear music and interpret it — is unlike anyone else I’ve ever seen on the ice. And I think because he wears his heart on his sleeve people feel so drawn in and captivated by his performances. He’s generous, thoughtful and extremely insightful. He’s able to understand the glide of the blade differently."

"We’re still working on it, we still do a lot of work to improve our communication, our efficiency together, to understand one another’s different preferences. It’s evolved over the course of two decades, for sure. Having spent so much time together, we realize it’s a unique dynamic but we’re so appreciative of what we have. It’s a special partnership. We still really enjoy skating together and I think that’s why we still are."

"Tessa is a perfectionist in all ways. For example, her hair always has to be perfect for an interview or competition, she makes me look goofy next to her."

"Tessa’s hilarious… I think it’s one of the things that gets overlooked because she’s always so pulled together, but she has the best sense of humor. It’s been the joy of my life to have as many laughs as we’ve had along the way."

"I’m motivated every single day to go to the rink because of what she brings. I know that she brings her best every day. With brilliant people, with being so creative, it’s hard to imagine you’d just be so steady. That last thing, that’s the consistency."

"I would never even think about skating with somebody else. The whole reason I wanted to come back to skating was to be close to Tessa again, and to share those moments."

"We're very proud of our business relationship, it's been very special for 20 years. Who can say that? It makes me shake my head sometimes driving to the rink, because I'm still excited to see Tessa at the arena for warmup. Who enjoys going in to work every day? That's ridiculous."

"I screwed up the first competition and she stayed with me. That's when I knew I'd found the one."

"When I was a little girl (but being raised as a little boy), what I wanted more than anything was to be a dancer. How I longed for it — the lights, the stage, the gorgeous costumes, most of all for the delivering grace of movement in harmony with a choreography greater than myself. Like a little Chinese , I had a beautiful, impossible dream. But unlike Billy Elliot’s, mine was never realized. and two left feet saw to that: I was laughed, bullied, or shamed out of every dance class I attempted."

"If there is one lesson that I have to teach you, dear reader, remember this: cute boys come and go, but The Dance is forever."

"On that day beneath the fluorescent lights of the YMCA, I was transcendent."

"For many of us, doing physical activity is a highly emotionally charged, even dangerous, undertaking. Sports and exercise are sites of intense where regressive notions about the meaning of “male” and female” come to the fore. Public s are dangerous for , who are often stereotyped and stigmatized as potential who make “real women” feel uncomfortable. Exercise clothing is frequently revealing and emphasizes our bodies in ways that “outs” us to strangers or triggers . Even supposedly activities are actually as a result of stereotypes about “” versus “” forms of exercise."

"As I twirled, cha-cha-ed and clapped my hands to the beat, I began to remember, for the first time in a long time, those moments I used to steal as a kid, dancing alone in my room with headphones on. Those fleeting moments when what I looked like didn’t matter, only what I felt. Only this time, I wasn’t a child anymore. There was no one who could burst in unannounced, laugh at me, punish me, force me to stop. I felt so free, so beautiful, in a way I had written off as impossible for me long ago. ... My inner dancer began to emerge from the deep pit where I had kept her all this time. I found the girlhood I was never allowed."

"There are a million tiny privileges that people take for granted that cannot: access to , to physical activity, to taking joy in our own bodies, are among them. Finding a physical activity that I loved came at the cost of putting up with countless small acts of hostility, and finally, I had had enough."

"I’m okay with waiting. I’ve found what I need to find. Whenever the mood strikes me, I wait until I’m home in my apartment. I put on blast. I close my eyes. And I dance."

"In the time I've tried to write this, I've had to run up the stairs to A) Put Baby to Bed which included dressing him (Daddy is not allowed he doesn't do it right allegedly SIGH) B) Read 3 stores about Sushi, Dim Sum & Potty Training ( Yes, I read about it but now I want to eat sushi) C) Sit down to continue writing only to be summoned back upstairs due to a Tummy Ache (visit the potty, change a diaper - always the way - kiss the belly, tuck back in).... "Such a Glamourous Life You Lead Meredith...." (said in my best lil ol' Jewish Man voice...) But really, truthfully, am so very blessed."

"​Look I put gold balls in a vase and voila - I’m done right?? Ha ha ha I have to figure out to Tree or not to Tree. I’m torn. That’s the good thing about having a Jewish husband. He won’t care if I say Xnay on the tree…."

"Seth your voice isn’t needed at this time. You aren’t helping. You aren’t being an ally to women. Why do you go and maybe bake a loaf of challah?? Because it is delicious and something one makes to share with others. It was akin to telling a woman to get into a Kitchen. My son is Jewish so nice try there but that’s not gonna fly. Given that I’m married to and have Jewish children nice try to make it about that. I was telling him to get in the kitchen. His misogyny flipped on him. You blinded by your own? Hardly. Sitting here with my Jewish son but nice try. You give him a pass on his blatant misogyny?? Go away troll. Hey winner I’m married into the tribe. Have Jewish kids. Nice try. Deflect his misogyny into some imaginary antisemitism. His misogyny. My crack was telling him to get back into the kitchen. It was dismissive the way he dismissed a sexual assault survivor. If you don’t recognize his misogyny you’re part of the problem."

"You mean the kids wearing the MAGA hats? That’s a rather Nazi take you’ve offered there. MAGA hats = Nazis. Nazis deserve to be punched."

"Writing a book is so strange. You start off in one spot and end up in another. But I think when I first set out to write the book, there was a certain element of trying to right historical wrongs I saw as a voracious reader and representation of immigrants and children of immigrants…"

"As a writer, my primary responsibility to readers is to write a story that is entertaining, and authentic. I wanted to write about characters who felt true to life, while also providing a way for readers to laugh at the foibles of others. Some of my characters are foolish, some are wise and kind, others are shallow and misguided. That’s how regular people behave too, and in fact we all cycle between many different ways of being…"

"…most stories about Muslims contain negative stereotypes that reinforce xenophobic, one-sided narratives that can cause real harm to vulnerable populations. I hope that more stories about Muslims, or Hindus, or Buddhists, etc., set in the West, will help readers understand immigrant communities better, but most importantly will also allow those immigrant communities to see themselves as worthy of being featured in all types of stories, not just highly politicized ones…"

"… I started writing it in 2010 and we weren’t as interested in stories about diversity back then. People told me I should set it in the United States, but I said no, it’s a second-generation Canadian story. It’s a unique and specific story. I wrote it anyway because it interested me. I thought, “Maybe I’ll be amusing myself at the very least.”"

"I'm very pro-democracy, and I would definitely encourage the people of Egypt. But at the same time I would warn them to look at and learn from Iran, Mubarak has destroyed the opposition in Egypt; the only opposition left is the Muslim Brotherhood. And while I certainly can't say that the [democracy movement] will lead to another dictatorship, I am saying there's a possibility - a real danger - that it will go the wrong way. So I'd ask them to please learn from history. Iranians are still suffering from a revolution that turned into much more of a dictatorship than the Shah's. So please don't dismiss the possibility that things can go wrong."

"I became a victim all over again; my life became as a bird in a cage. I asked, why me? Why do I suffer so much? I felt so bitter and angry, I wanted those who had caused me suffering to suffer even more than me."

"Try not to see her as she was then – suffering, crying out in pain and fear. Try to see her as she is today: as a mother, a grandmother and a survivor, calling out for peace."

"The more I prayed for my enemies, the softer my heart became. When I felt real forgiveness, my heart was set free. If I can do it, all of you can do it too."

"I came through the fire, and I am so blessed to be with you today. My dream is that one day, all people will live without fear, in real peace, with no fighting and no hostility."

"The fire burned off my clothes. And I saw my arm got burned with the fire. I thought, oh, my goodness, I get burned. People will see me different way. Nine years old, I became the victim of war. I didn’t like that picture at all. I felt like, why he took my picture, when I was agony, naked, so ugly? I wished that picture wasn’t taken. I went through 17 operations. I had to deal with the pain every single day. I used to compare my scars with buffalo skin. And because my skin wasn’t have any pores, I cannot sweat, make me feel so tired, so headache."

"All my journey, I help children, building school, building hospital, orphanage home. It’s about relationship. Now I’m working, not because of my duty, not because of my mission, but because of my love."

"If I could talk face to face with the pilot who dropped the bomb, I could tell him we cannot change history. But we should try to do good things for the present and for the future to promote peace."

"When I was growing up, the pain was so sharp, it was like I’d been cut by a knife. As I get older, the pain is different, it is deep in there and stays there."

"Every time I touch my scar I am so thankful. My scar reminds me that God is with me. It is the mark that God stamped on my body to remind me he is there. I touch my scar and I love it – it humbles me, it makes me love people and do the work I am doing now. It takes me back to being that little girl, but now I have no upset or anger about it, I just go to the Lord and pray. And the more I pray, the more peace I have over my suffering. My scar makes me have more intimacy in my relationship with God. It’s the strength inside of me. My scar is a miracle."

"Forgiveness made me free from hatred. I still have many scars on my body and severe pain most days but my heart is cleansed. Napalm is very powerful, but faith, forgiveness, and love are much more powerful. We would not have war at all if everyone could learn how to live with true love, hope, and forgiveness. If that little girl in the picture can do it, ask yourself: Can you?"

"The United Church is the only denomination in the world that could declare the Bible is not the authoritative word of God for all time. And that needs to be said by a major recognized denomination in order to undermine every single statement that is made by any religious extremist group — that their document, whether it’s the Bible, the Qur’an or the Bhagavad Gita, is not a divinely authored piece from some supernatural source."

"What people kept saying is how can a minister who says she doesn’t believe in God be a minister in the Christian church?"

"We were looking for someone deemed to be progressive-thinking. [West Hill as a congregation that wanted to] explore new roads in its spiritual journey."

"Anecdotally my sense is there are a lot of ministers who maybe wouldn’t say it as forcefully as Gretta would, but at the end of the day they don’t really believe in anything resembling traditional Christianity."

"You are stealing the tradition of a noble religion and using it when you are preaching the exact opposite of what they believe"

"A minister who is not suitable, cannot be effective. To assess suitability, the review committee may ask the minister to answer the ordination questions again, starting with: Do you believe in God?"

"Gretta has called herself 'an atheist minister'. While that language is startling to some, the Christian academy knows exactly what she is saying. To refer to oneself as an 'atheist' does not mean that one is asserting that there is no God; it means that the 'theistic' definition of God is no longer operative or believable."

"Whether or not Gretta Vosper is a minister is a decision that is made by a regional body called a conference, and Gretta Vosper is not in London Conference, which is the conference I serve"

"Like most Canadians, I am indifferent to the visit of the Queen."

"We have, as I have pointed out again and again, a great gift of nature in our landscape."

"Landscape architects are a combination of artists, designers, choreographers and scientists; they must also be leaders, especially in dealing with the effects of climate change."

"I work with a concept driven by the idea that people want to be surrounded by nature—it is in our genes."

"The freedom to create, the freedom to think differently, was unlimited."

"You lose a lot of friends, I look upon this as a life cycle."

"And the lesson that I thought I learned, and that we both learned from that experience, that when you moved beyond the person's colour and you get to know them as a person, that you find that we're very, very similar in likes, dislikes, our wants and our experiences in life."

"The highlight of my career was the day when I got this job full time."

"It was bittersweet"

"[she has] stiff person syndrome"

"It's the moment you think you can't, that you can."

"I work hard. But a lot of people work hard and they don't have anything. I was very fortunate."

"It's always good to know both how to deal with being alone, and how to behave while in company."

"“If you follow your dreams, it means you follow your heart. If you do follow your heart, I don’t think you can go wrong.”"

"Don't be so familiar and so much into the details. Keep people dreaming. Close the window, and make them wonder."

"We had tried time after -- we've tried five times before this last try that worked out. And I guess when you try and you believe and you just -- we just kept trying. And we were blessed twice. And it's just amazing to have my 9 1/2-year-old beautiful boy and now we waited so long to have -- and hoped for another child and we were blessed -- double blessed. And it's just extraordinary to be parents again and it's such a blessing. And they're doing -- Nelson and Eddie are doing really well. And they're 6 weeks old. And I still look at them and I still can't believe it. I can't believe it."

"That's right, Larry. I did because -- we did actually. When we knew that we were going on this last tour, go to South Africa, started the tour there almost two years ago now already, I knew that we were going to South Africa and we hoped to meet with Mr. Mandela. And we did. And I wanted to take a little course of history, of course, before we left because I wanted to know about the apartheid and I wanted to know how great of a hero he was. And I wanted to know what he did better. And so I met with a teacher and I learned about -- much more. And so when I met with Mr. Mandela, my mom was there, Rene was there, Rene's son Patrick was there. Our son Rene-Charles was there. And it was such an impact to meet with him. What a hero. What a difference he made. And we decided to name one of our sons after Nelson Mandela. And for Eddie, that was another hero of our lives as well. Eddie Marnay was a French lyricist who wrote five of my French albums and he also wrote for Edith Piaf and Barbra Streisand and many, many wonderful singers. And -- so two heroes in our lives. And we wanted our boys to grow and say, you know, we're named after wonderful people."

"there was three babies, that's right, yes. And nature took its course. And one little baby just decided to step back to give the two others a chance to survive very well. And you never want to have -- to have -- wanting to make a choice -- to make a decision if something goes wrong, for example, with a pregnancy, you never want to be put, like, forward and have to take a decision and put an end to something. So if there was -- the doctor said to me, if there was something wrong, you know sometimes when something wrong with a baby the baby decides by itself and nature takes its course and it puts an end to it. So we don't know what happened. We're not trying to find out. One little baby decided to step back. But you just have to look forward. And -- but you still miss -- I still think about the one that stepped back and just -- is not here today. You always think of that. I'm sure every woman who has that experience still has a feeling about the little one that's not -- that's not there."

"We tried many, many times. And that was the sixth try. And then I have to say that many times that I asked myself when am I going to end? When am I going to stop? What's going to tell me that I need to put an end to that? Because when you try three times and four times, it's like, am I going to go forward, we questioned ourselves many times. But I guess it's nature itself. Until -- we are women and we can be pregnant and we can have babies, then you keep -- you still want to keep going. And then one day this is the beginning of something else or an end for something. And then this is your answer for you to stop. So -- but I'm not there yet I guess. So we were blessed."

"I'll leave it to Rene. First of all, as people know, I'm an open book. I have shared my whole life. My private and my show business life. It helps me actually to feel my songs and to go on with my dreams. But how much to share? I think I leave it to Rene. I trust him. I love him. He's been my leader in my career, as well as the leader of my heart, and it's trust. And we share an amazing relationship together. For that part, I leave it up to him."

"Actually, they're not identical at all. When they were born, they were actually separate. But in their two little homes. But I couldn't -- I couldn't see the difference. I was like, oh, my gosh, and we don't even have names. I'm going to say baby A, baby B for how long? I was like confused. Who's baby A? But this is where -- we mixed the hats. Oh, my god, baby A is not baby B. And B is A. I was like -- we were all confused. And after coming home, Rene says, I know how important choosing names. It's such a responsibility to choose names. We have to have names. I said, I know, I know. So after about a week or so, we couldn't take it anymore. So we sat down. And we said, OK, it's going to be our two heroes here, Nelson and Eddie. So Rene-Charles, Nelson and Eddie. We're suiting our family. We're very proud. And here we are."

"It's pretty amazing how we can survive with no sleep. Actually, my little boy right now, Rene-Charles, has a little -- he's a little sick, he's got a little fever and he's got some stuff going on, so I want to be there and I want to take care of him and at the same time we're breastfeeding the babies every 2 1/2 hours. And no, let me -- let me rephrase that, we are not breastfeeding the baby. I am breastfeeding the babies. So it's like there's not a lot of sleep. Every 2 1/2 hours. And then we're not counting the rest. I mean, sometimes I have 25 minutes left. Do I shower, do I eat or do I sleep? It's up to me. It's still up to me for that part. But it's a great challenge. It's very, very tiring. It's full of surprises. But it's all with love. And it's all amazing. All day, I'm in my pajamas. Sometimes I forget to really close it well. So it's -- it's overwhelming. In a good way. In a good way. But there's no sleep yet."

"It's quite funny and interesting at the same time because a lot -- everybody's asking us that question obviously. But people think probably that he's like, oh, my goodness, your brothers, can I hold them, can I hold them? I don't think it's there yet. I think R.C.'s looking at them and it's like, mom, the only thing they do is, like, these type of things. They look up. They look down. They cry and all that. So he's trying to make faces to make them laugh. And they kind of look. And I say to R.C., they're just starting to see. Colors is just coming now. And he's like, I think he's looking forward to play with them. So they're not talking about baseball yet. But very soon it will happen. So R.C.'s very interested, obviously, in them. But he's looking for them, this is Nelson, this is Eddie. Mom, are they OK? He's trying to make them laugh. But right now I think he's looking forward and he can't wait for them to throw the ball."

"I'm very excited. It's wonderful to be wanted and to be loved again. It is wonderful to go back home again. If I may say this way. So -- and it's always exciting. We know we've had a lot of meetings and get-together a few months back with all the wonderful people involved in the new show. And Ken Erlich will be the director of the show who's been doing the Grammys, you know, for more than 30 years. And actually, it's just wonderful to get ideas again. Every time you think, I'm going to run out of ideas at one point but no, everybody gets together, and we have ideas and we're going to be with 31 musicians on stage and, for me, I mean, there's much more than that, but just this itself. Thirty-one musicians for a singer, it's a dream come true. I mean, you might have that once in a while in a recording studio. But every night on stage with you? It's going to be hard for me to spend my time like not looking back too many times. You know to have my back against the people and go back and notice the crowd and the same time as all those wonderful orchestra. So I'm looking forward to go back and perform again. I'm thrilled. And there's going to be a lot of surprises and effects and I'm very, very happy."

"I'm not going on the ski slope again for -- that's it. I've had five years of that. It was magnificent. But it's been very, very difficult for the spine, for the neck, for the body, for the voice itself actually. So no, actually, when I ended Las Vegas with "A New Day," they had put it back straight. So they kept it straight. And we made sure they did. And I'm looking forward to perform on a flat and smooth surface. I'm looking forward to experience that."

"I kind of feel that it's more about music itself. Not that we didn't do that before. It's putting more emphasis on big orchestra, music, musicians, singers, songs. We want to do music at the purest as possible, like the old days I guess. So if it's a concept ."

"Well, it's very different, that's for sure. The energy is very different. I have to say that when you tour the world, obviously, the jetlags and different hours and ways of living and traveling, a lot of hours in the plane, and you wake up in the morning and you're not quite sure where you are, and it is very tiring. It takes longer to get to a place. But it was so well put together, so well done, and it gives you a chance as well to see the world. I was so proud to have my mom and my son to see the world and do safaris and visit museums and -- I mean, see different livings, and it was just a big thrill and a great, great chance for all of us. It made all of us I think grow very well. But as well, to be stable in one place, it's also another great opportunity when you can leave your family home, knowing that when your kids are small they can have stability. So think R.C., my child, was very -- was old enough to see the world, but right now for my little two new kids on the block, should I say, it would be -- it's perfect right now. So I can't pick -- I can't pick one thing that's better than another. It's just two different energies. It's like an up tempo song and a ballad, for example."

"What a legend. What a man. And it's so unfortunate what happened. And it's amazing because 30 years ago, like you said, he was killed, and it's amazing because today Rene and I were talking together about him, and I was 12 years old when he was -- when he was killed. But fortunately, through his amazing music and through my family, my brothers and sisters and my husband, I have learned his music and his words, and so I kind of grew a little later with him. But he's part of my life, and we were talking a lot about him today, and it's just like -- I remember that 40 -- 40 years ago he wrote an amazing, amazing song called "Imagine." And we've been singing that song today in the house, and it's just so unfortunate, you know."

"At the beginning I would ask myself: why me? How did this happen? What have I done? Is this my fault? Life doesn’t give you any answers. You just have to live it! I have this illness for some unknown reason. The way I see it, I have two choices. Either I train like an athlete and work super hard, or I switch off and it’s over, I stay at home, listen to my songs, stand in front of my mirror and sing to myself. I’ve chosen to work with all my body and soul, from head to toe, with a medical team. I want to be the best I can be. My goal is to see the Eiffel Tower again! … I have this strength within me. I know that nothing is going to stop me."

"For now, I have to learn to live with it … Five days a week I undergo athletic, physical and vocal therapy. I work on my toes, my knees, my calves, my fingers, my singing, my voice."

"For four years I’ve been saying to myself that I’m not going back, that I’m ready, that I’m not ready ... As things stand, I can’t stand here and say to you: ‘Yes, in four months.’ I don’t know ... My body will tell me. I’m working very hard and tomorrow will be even harder. Tomorrow is another day. But there’s one thing that will never stop, and that’s the will."

"I haven't fought the illness; it's still within me and will be forever. Hopefully, we'll find a miracle, a way to heal through scientific research, but I have to learn to live with it, I work on everything, from my toes to my knees, calves, fingers, singing, voice... It's the condition I have to learn to live with now, by stopping questioning myself."

"Today, I can't tell you: 'Yes, in four months.' I don't know... My body will tell me. However, I don't just want to wait. [...] But there is one thing that will never stop, and that's the desire. It's the passion. It's the dream. It's the determination."

"He reached his peak as an artist, but above all, he wanted to be a family man. And his greatest passion now is being with his daughters, with his wife. I respect that choice immensely, but I'm not there yet."

"The name doesn't do justice to the pain and life-changing symptoms the syndrome causes, said Tara Zier, founder of the Stiff Person Syndrome Research Foundation."

"It’s hard coming from such a family when you have to earn your place on any team. There were so many good riders.""

"Your goals are your dreams and your dreams alone... If you do not bring your goals out of your dreams and into reality, no one else will."

"I will be strong! then let the billows roll Far o'er my head--they cannot hurt my soul; Deeper the swell, the higher soars the crest-- I reach my haven on its boundless breast."

"The landscape, like a painted picture shone, Lined as an atlas in the window frame,In form, in character, for aye the same, But many moods writ each its tale thereon."

"We ask Thee not for quietness and rest, But for the ecstasy of endless quest; That Chief Adventure, questing for the truth, That radiant wholesomeness, immortal youth."

"Foolish, foolish Edith Sitwell sang a solo of her auntie, her rich auntie and her trumpet, such a trumpet as old ladies give to stranger- folk to blow in."

"During periods of creative work she lived in another world."

"(You have said that your work is “a celebration of life”...) DO: Having lived 95 years, I see and feel all aspects of life, and believe that it is all to be shared and recounted. It may not sound “right” to “celebrate” a death, but it was just as important to me to recognize loss and turmoil just as I chose to share joy."

"I believe it is just as important to highlight and memorialize all aspects of our world and cultures. To me, it is important not to bury the shame and trauma caused by the issues you ask about."

"Art was in my blood and my soul, and my grandfather and whole family were encouraging influences. The more I learned, the more I wanted to study and produce art. Picasso was one of my favorite studies."

"It is an artist’s dream/goal to share their work with the world, and I have been blessed in that regard. I have enjoyed creating and sharing it all."

"(What advice do you have for young artists?) DO: Without hesitation, I would say just be yourself and let your imagination, thoughts, beliefs, views, visions — or whatever inspires you — be seen. Be vulnerable, and share what is inside you. Regardless of what medium you chose to create, open up and share your gift."

"I find it unnecessary to deal with the issue of extraterritoriality to dispose of this appeal [because] the CFNIS did not violate the Charter"

"The matters between Justice Côté and w:Revenue Quebec were resolved years ago. Justice Côté was one of the most experienced litigators in the country with extensive expertise in civil and commercial litigation over a distinguished 34 year career."

"Most non-Jews, I have come to realize-and not just my young Albertan students-know little about the history of the Jews. Nor are they necessarily aware of anti-Semitism's roots in Christianity. From Sholem Aleichem to Peretz and beyond, canonical Yiddish literature does not mince words when it comes to identifying the tormentors of Jews as Christians."

"How does one teach Yiddish literature without teaching something about the history of the countries in which it was created-mainly Poland, Ukraine, Russia-and the history of the Jews in those countries? How does one teach Jewish literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries without teaching about anti-Semitism, which was pervasive throughout this region at this time and sanctioned by the government? How many references to the persecution of the Jews in Eastern Europe are too many references? There is no way to avoid the topic of suffering. But how much gloom is too much gloom? How many pogrom stories should one teach? How many novels about the Holocaust?"

"Studying what is specific to one culture is often the first step toward understanding many cultures. And that, finally, is the best reason, I think, for studying literature altogether."

"In the end it does not matter whether students are Jewish or not Jewish. What matters is that they be sympathetic to another point of view, that they be open to a reality radically different from their own. And it is the function of literature-and of teaching-to bridge the gap between realities."

"Working together on the translation of my books forged a bond between us that is stronger than the bond I have with any other human being, because it is made up of the intimacy that only translation can confer on a writer and her translator, and because it implies a shared creative effort."

"The accusation of bitterness implicitly acknowledges that a great many people have never been granted the social goods likely to lead to the luxury of cultivating sympathetic emotional lives."

"Both of my parents were interested in politics, but it was really my father who encouraged us from a very young age to watch the news and consider why certain decisions were being made."

"I supported their platform because I thought it spoke to the issues that were most unfair and needed to be addressed."

"It becomes more possible to elect another Black person, so that it seems not that exceptional."

"Change is not always welcomed. The default position for many of the people in government is white male."

"I felt I could do more on the outside, which I continued to do working for long-term care and integrated services for children."

"A passionate and determined advocate for social justice, Zanana Akande made history in Canada as the first Black woman to serve as a cabinet minister."

"As an educator and community-builder in Toronto, she has dedicated her career to the well-being of others, particularly those in marginalized communities."

"Today, for her tireless leadership in public service and her fearless advocacy for equity and diversity, Akande will receive a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from the University of Toronto."

"Defying all predictions, the young Clara, who would later be pronounced attractive, graceful, and possessed of “treasured feminine charms,” majored in mathematics and graduated with a BA and high honours on 27 June 1890, at the age of 16."

"Despite Martin's heroic trailblazing, not until the middle of the 20th century did significant numbers of women enter the legal profession in Canada."

"Despite the rejection, Martin persisted. Optimistically, or perhaps naively, she appealed to what she considered the "broad spirit of liberality and fairness" characteristic of the legal profession."

"With the support of such influential people as Dr. Emily Stowe and Sir Oliver Mowat, Martin's appeal led to the passage of a provincial act allowing women to become solicitors."

"Looking back at Martin's treatment by a patriarchal regime, it is abhorrent today that a woman could be denied personhood and thereby be barred from admittance to an organization for which she was well-qualified."

"Martin was not a leader of the women's movement, but she worked diligently to promote opportunities for women."

"“There is an understanding that we all have jobs to do. You can be frustrated or angry or mad at someone if they’re being too tough on you one day, but that is how democracy works.""

"I like the power of TV, and I know it’s potentially waning for all sorts of reasons, but it’s immediate."

"At some point over the next four years, a promise will be bent or broken and the government will disappoint people, and it’s important people know that they say one thing and they’re doing something else."

"My story started in Auckland, New Zealand, where I discovered my love for dance at a studio in Takanini called Stewart Dance Studios. As a kid, I was very involved in competition dance, winning many national titles before diving into the professional dance world that Auckland City has to offer. In New Zealand, I danced as a dancer on the SkyCity Cheer Team and was on Dancing with the Stars New Zealand before making the move in 2018 to Los Angeles to attend AMDA College of the Performing Arts. After graduating AMDA in 2020 with my Associates in Dance Theatre, I made the move to Dallas, TX, where I danced for Zion Dance Project, Urban Performing company, and The RevCrew. I also started teaching and choreographing at Studio B Dallas and Frisco Dance Studio. At the end of last year, I made the move to New York City to train and audition more in the dance world; however, I now basically live between New York City and Dallas as I come back once a month to choreograph and teach for Studio B Dallas as well as to perform at events throughout the year."

"My road hasn’t been that smooth, but it also hasn’t been too difficult either. I would say my biggest struggle would be juggling my teaching/choreographing with my life as a dancer. I love to dance, and I love to teach, and although these seem to go hand in hand, there can also be many conflicts so I am constantly trying to juggle what one I want to prioritize more. At this stage in my life, I would like to first dance more than choreograph and teach as my body is not young forever. However, teaching and choreographing can tend to pay more than dance gigs, so that can be a big factor to my decisions as well."

"I am a dancer, choreographer, and teacher trained in Jazz, Contemporary, Hip Hop, and Ballet. I would say as a dancer and performer, the main styles that I specialize in would be Hip Hop and Jazz. As a teacher and choreographer, I mainly teach Jazz, Contemporary, and Hip Hop but mainly choreograph Jazz and Contemporary. As a dancer, what sets me apart is that I am very committed to any role given me, and I love to rise above challenges that may seem impossible. As a teacher, I believe that repetition is important; I will quite often give my students various exercises that we will work on each week so that they can master certain skills and really get a good foundation of each style. As a choreographer, I feel like I can cater my choreography to any level of dancer to best showcase their talents and abilities whilst also giving them a challenge to help them grow as a dancer. When I am choreographing group dances, I also love to play around with formation changes, and any of my students could tell you that they are never in one formation for too long. As a Choreographer, I am proud of all the pieces that I have choreographed for Studio B Dallas, and as a dancer, one highlight would be my recent work dancing with Metropolis Productions for the Mary Kay Seminar that was just in Dallas, celebrating 60 years."

"I’m always interested in working with new people! You can email me – [email protected], follow me on Instagram @emma.morris, and honestly, a simple like, save, or share of my profile or dance videos goes a long way!"

"Don’t wait for permission — make your place, and then open the door for others."

"I just find Christmas so overwhelming. So if the CBC poll was taken during Christmas, no wonder people feel that way."

"They teach you that as an improviser you should never censor yourself. Whatever comes to your mind immediately, you say it - you go with it."

"I've learned that if the human brain is told it can't have something, it then wants that thing more than anything in the universe."

"We tweak the jokes, and on our best nights, our audience keeps laughing. We don’t want to leave much room for them to breath."

"It’s been a joy to write material for such a specific demographic."

"As an 'allocated Canadian' (for the National Women's Soccer League) I got to list three cities that I wanted to play in and no joke I wrote 'Portland, Portland, Portland'."

"I really don’t think about scoring, but instead think more about being dangerous."

"She has that special quality that I cannot teach; she is just there and knocks the ball in with head, chest, or foot."