Quotes: Graydon Carter

Johanna Schneller: "You write this about your teenage self: 'I wanted to become something, but I had no idea what to become, or how to become it.' In your life, what was the value of being an outsider, of yearning?"

Graydon Carter: "Yearning and curiosity are vital. I grew up in Ottawa in the 1950s, sixties and early seventies. We didn't have any magazines, there were no cultural figures I could learn from. Everything I wanted was either in Toronto or New York."

–– Graydon Carter (b. 1949), Canadian journalist and magazine editor

Source: Johanna Schneller. "Former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter reflects on the glory days of magazines." The Globe and Mail, Saturday March 22, 2025; p. R8. Re: Graydon Carter's memoir When the Going Was Good.

via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 56. 

Quotes: Walter Scott

"... when I was in the classroom, it felt like the only way for me to keep my attention focused on what the teacher was saying was to doodle at the same time. It creates a buffer that the information can filter through if I'm doing something cognitively at the same time." 

–– Walter Scott (b. 1985), Canadian artist and graphic novelist 

Source: Emily Donaldson. "Walter Scott pulls no punches in Wendy series." The Globe and Mail, Saturday August 3, 2024; p. R8. 

via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 57.

Quotes: Ann-Marie MacDonald

 ""Are you very frightened, Charlotte?"

""Of course not," I sputtered.

""Then how do you propose to be brave?"

""I am terrified, Miss Gourley."

""Good show, there's your first step. Remember, all must feel fear: The important thing is not to be ruled by it."

–– Ann-Marie MacDonald (b. 1958), Canadian playwright, author, actress, and broadcast host 

Source: Ann-Marie MacDonald. Fayne. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2022; p. 669. 

via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 32.

Quotes: Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

"Work is done, then forgotten. Therefore it lasts forever." 

–– Lao Tzu (c. 500 BCE), Chinese philosopher and writer 

Source: Tao Te Ching

via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 34. 

Quotes: Eckhart Tolle

"When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life." 

–– Eckhart Tolle (b. 1948), German spiritual teacher and writer 

via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 59.

Quotes: Graham Greene

"When we are not sure, we are alive." 

–– Graham Greene (1904-1991), British writer, playwright, literary critic

via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 19.

Quotes: Eleanor Roosevelt

"And the purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. You can do that only if you have curiosity, and unquenchable spirit of adventure." 

–– Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), American author, activist, diplomat, political figure, and First Lady. Quote from: You Learn by Living. 1960. 

via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 48.