Women From Canada

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"…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.”"

"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…"

"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…"

"​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…."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"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!"

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

"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 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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"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."