That’s what fascinates me about these writers’ retreats: You’re in these small spaces with small groups of people, and all of the sudden, the spotlight is shining on you harder than it normally is. Lynn Coady Read Quote
I think authors like me are always struggling with the idea that they should have a brand and a Facebook author page and they should get Twitter accounts. I don’t know what to do with them. Lynn Coady Read Quote
My dad was a real man’s man, and so were my brothers, in a small town where hockey is king. It’s a masculine culture. It made me really attentive to what it meant to be a guy. Lynn Coady Read Quote
Most don’t live inside their heads as a writer does, having conversations with her own ideas. Lynn Coady Read Quote
The masterstroke of male fraternity, I believed, was the practice of never speaking of anything remotely personal or related to one’s emotions. That way, no one is ever made uncomfortable. Any such awkward moments can always be dispelled with a flurry of pretend-punches. Lynn Coady Read Quote
That’s all small talk is – a quick way to connect on a human level – which is why it is by no means as irrelevant as the people who are bad at it insist. In short, it’s worth making the effort. Lynn Coady Read Quote
Occasionally, chewing over some random letter writer’s dilemma, I’ll find myself imagining scenarios where the problem could be sidestepped by an innocent fib or series of evasive manoeuvres. Then, I slap myself on the wrist. Lynn Coady Read Quote
One does not become an atheist out of a desire for hassle-free Sunday mornings. People come to atheism because they have a problem with organized religion – usually a problem they consider to be of moral urgency. Lynn Coady Read Quote
Here’s the thing about lingerie: The only time we see it outside our own bedrooms, it is on women who are gloriously freakish in their physical perfection. Lynn Coady Read Quote
It’s the typical mid-life crisis kind of thing, where you just stop and wonder, ‘Should I go back to university and get a law degree?’ I kind of looked around me and thought, ‘What kind of idiot am I that I’ve just spent the last 10 years writing novels? Financially, I’m pretty much where I was when I was 28.’ Lynn Coady Read Quote
