1. Canadians are fond of a good disaster, especially if it has
ice, water, or snow in it. You thought the national flag was about
a leaf, didn't you? Look harder. It's where someone got axed in the
snow. ~Margaret Atwood
2. And that prairie continues to live in our hearts Its much
more than memories that tell us apart Its the wind! Its the sun!
Its the cold! Its the snow! Only things that we kids from the
prairie will know. ~Excerpt from Bouchards Prairie Born
3. Patricks gift [to Nicholas], the arrow into the past, shows
[Nicholas] the wealth in himself, how he has been sewn into
history. Now he will begin to tell stories. He is a tentative man,
even with his family. That night in bed shyly he tells his wife the
story of the nun. ~Excerpt from In the Skin of a Lion
4. Look at that sea, girls--all silver and shadow and vision of
things not seen. We couldn't enjoy its loveliness any more if we
had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds. ~Excerpt from
Montgomerys Anne of Avonlea
5. Obasan . . . does not dance to the multicultural pipers tune
or respond to the racists slur. She remains in a silent territory,
defined by her serving hands. ~Excerpt from Joy Kogawas Obasan
6. "There are some very good reasons why the novel has come to
be so important to the Canadian tradition. It is a study of the
failed artistic imagination, and of an eroding puritanism; it is
also ... a good example of Fryes concept of the garrison mentality,
in its exploration of the peculiarities of the Canadian experience
of nature and its relation to civilization ~Paul Denham
7. While the hardware of civilization - iron pots, blankets,
guns - was welcomed by Native people, the software of Protestantism
and Catholicism - original sin, universal damnation, atonement, and
subligation - was not, and Europeans were perplexed, offended, and
incensed that Native peoples had the temerity to take their goods
and return their gods. ~Excerpt from Kings The Inconvenient Indian:
A Curious Account of Native People in North America
8. Munros narratives are usually structured with contrasting
views such as the difference between rural and urban cultures in
Canada. She also likes to set her stories in small town Ontario to
show familiar things that people can connect to.
9. To move to a new place -- that's the greatest excitement.
For a while you believe you carry nothing with you -- all is
canceled from before, or cauterized, and you begin again and
nothing will go wrong this time. ~Excerpt from Laurences The Stone
Angel
10. A Qallupilluq is an imaginary Inuit creatureand grabs
children when they come near the iceInuit traditionally spend a lot
of time near the ice so Qallupilluit were invented to keep small
children away from dangerous crevices. ~Excerpt from Munschs A
Promise is a Promise