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“Amanda meant to move, but somehow her feet didn't do anything. They were like Quebec, determined to be independent.”
― Erin McCarthy, Heiress for Hire

“All of a sudden, life became too much to bear. Just like that, for no particular reason. Because there was a child’s corpse in the fridge on rue Parthenais. Because I had to start all over again from scratch, one more time. Because I had rolled my rock to the top of the hill and now it was rolling back down again. The times before, I’d always managed to put on a brave face. But there comes a time when you just don’t feel strong enough to look for another place to live and go shopping again for clothes and dishes and cutlery and scouring pads and toilet paper. This was one of those times. When I got back to the hotel, I asked the Barbie at reception for the key to the minibar. It burned in the palm of my hand. I slapped it back down on the counter and ran out. I had to find a meeting.”
― Bernard Emond, 8:17 pm, Rue Darling

“By the time they had called at the baker's and climbed to the top of Cap Diamant, the sun, dropping with incredible quickness, had already disappeared. They sat down in the blue twilight to eat their bread and await the turbid afterglow which is peculiar to Quebec in autumn; the slow, rich, prolonged flowing-back of crimson across the sky, after the sun has sunk behind the dark ridges of the west. Because of the haze in the air the colour seems thick, like a heavy liquid, welling up wave after wave, a substance that throbs, rather than a light.”
― Willa Cather, Shadows on the Rock

“Well, I don't know the whole situation in detail, but my guess is that it's in Quebec's self-interest to stay part of Canada―because the alternative is to become part of the United States. Quebec's not going to be able to remain independent, so it can either become part of the United States or stay part of Canada. And given that choice, I think it's better off staying part of Canada. I mean, if Quebec became independent from Canada, it wouldn't necessarily be called part of the United States―like it wouldn't get colored the same as the United States on the map―but it would be so integrated into the American economy that it would effectively be a colony. And I don't think that's in the interest of the people of Quebec, I think they're better off staying part of Canada.”
― Noam Chomsky, Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky

“It's the ones who smile at you while they're plotting in the dark that I've learned to worry about.

Sometimes the monsters we fear aren't on the opposite side" Esa Khattak”
― Ausma Zehanat Khan, A Deadly Divide

“I wanted to ask why you were lonely, but what would I say if you asked me the same question?”
― A.A. Patawaran, Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official

“All instincts told me to walk away and not look back. My life had been of numbing peace, of interminable serenity, and here was the promise of disruption, a little intermission in the monotony that my life had become.”
― A.A. Patawaran

“For years, "Sorry, I don't speak French" has been the reflexive response of English-speaking Canadians to a request, a comment, or a greeting in the other official language. Part apology, part defiance, it is a declaration of the otherness. That is not me. I don't do that. The language barrier is her, at this counter, now.”
― Graham Fraser, Sorry, I Don't Speak French: Confronting the Canadian Crisis That Won't Go Away

“Responding ot the need to represent French Canada in the company's offerings, Franca and Ambrose researched French-Canadian folk songs and arts and crafts, commissioned a score, on George Crum's recommendation, from Hector Gratton, and put together what was intended as a light and amusing ballet on folk themes. It was well-received outside Quebec, but met strong opposition in Montreal, where it was seen as the worst kind of tokenism as well as a slight to the true nature of Quebec culture. Paul Roussel, reviewing for Le Canada, called into question the validity of its inspiration. He suggested that, suitably revised, it might make an amusing trifle, but in its present form it could not lay claim to any Quebecois cultural authenticity.”
― James Neufeld, Passion to Dance: The National Ballet of Canada

“Il existe onze mots en gaélique pour définir les différentes sortes de pluie, comme il y en a quatorze au Québec pour décrire la neige dans tous ses états.”
― Benoîte Groult

“They want this resource for themselves. They're blaming us for the low salmon runs. But we're not the ones overfishing. We've always caught what we needed. Some years are better than others, but we respect the cycle. We did not create this mess. You see over there? They are allowed to catch more than us because the government said they could. And further out, in the ocean, they can catch even more.”
― Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm

“He hit a local café just one street over and down from his place, ordered a coffee, and tried to draw something on a sketchpad. Nothing came to mind. Time passed more quickly than he'd imagined. On taking a sip of his coffee, he wondered if he should’ve cut to the chase and ordered iced coffee in the first place. He felt restless all of a sudden.
“Down to the beach!”
― K.H. McMurray

“Meenoo decided this was a good moment to remind his human staff that he was missing something in his life. Eileen and Katy's eyes were on each other when Meenoo jumped up onto the table, giving them both a start. He went to Eileen and put his left front paw on the paper she was holding in her hand, lowering it to the table: He'd chosen which human was going to have the privilege of feeding him.
“Frickin' fleabag�, muttered Eileen.
Katy tried to conceal a smile.
“Ah, but you're so cuteâ€�, said Eileen, rubbing him under his chin.”
― K.H. McMurray

“Off to the immediate left of the garage was a dead-end road down where the parents of one of her exes lived. She wondered if Aidan had returned at any point, perhaps, like her, even to boomerang home for a bit. She also wondered if she was projecting.
“Probably nowhere near Hatzquiam.�
If she had been curious enough about passing by Aidan's parents' place, then it must have been brief enough that she decided, like waiting for Vince to show up, that it wasn't worth the time. Being curious was fine, but she didn't feel like venturing down a dead-end road.”
― K.H. McMurray

“She put the letter down on the table, choosing to ignore it. After three seconds, she glanced at the letter and picked it up again, re-reading it and giving the event a bit more thought. She smiled little-wicked before putting it back in her bag.
The Eventual Novelist looked directly at her, bee-lined to her table, stopped stock-still, and said, “Whatever it is, don't be like me and put it off�, before scurrying back to his table to do whatever he was doing before.
Seanna decided that it was to time to drink up and go home.”
― K.H. McMurray

“She will leave me.
It’s six AM. Breakfast for one. Eggs, sunny-side-up, like the morning outside; two-cheese English muffin, melting in the toaster oven; already humid outside; coffee will be a little bitter today, no matter how much sweetener gets put in it. The OJ will stay in the fridge � my stomach can do without the citric acid bombardment this morning.
She will pack her things and leave me.
Coffee brews. Radio station plays then breaks from classical music, telling me what's already evident about the weather.
She will complain that she cannot get along with me.
Eggs pop and sizzle as the news comes on.”
― K.H. McMurray

“They talked about this novelty called “e-mailâ€� and the Pine System, only available at institutes of higher learning and some libraries. Marcus got his first e-mail address recently but Aidan had gotten his three years earlier, so Marcus considered Aidan “a veteranâ€�. Marcus mentioned that his college had warned its students that e-mail was for “research purposes onlyâ€�.
“Yeah, we all laughed at that, too�, quipped Aidan. “But just a word of warning: Don't get too much into newsgroups or IRC, or you'll wonder where the last 24 hours went.�
“What’s “IRC�?�
“’Internet Relay Chatâ€�. It’ll be the end of us allâ€�, joked Aidan.”
― K.H. McMurray

“If I were in Manila, I doubt I would ever have to make a trip to the grocery alone. There would be family—sisters, brothers, cousins, nieces, nephews, in the absence of whom, amigas, yayas, even drivers could be counted onâ€� If I were in Manila, instead of here, I would never have enough time to sit alone on a bench on the sidewalk or walk down the street or ride trains by myself. I would be chauffeured. I would be chaperoned. I would spend Sunday afternoons playing mah-jong or having tea or shopping or exchanging gossip with my friends, rather than sweeping floors or doing the laundry or tending to the garden or overseeing the work of some enterprising teen shoveling the snow off the front yard.”
― A.A. Patawaran, Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official

“There was no anonymity in Manila. It was a big city, but it was a small city in many ways, too small for me back in the day. If I were in Manila, I wouldn’t be caught dead in the company of a beer-drinking stranger like you, especially like you in your bad boy jacket and your bad word shirt and your scruffy beard on a Saturday afternoon.”
― A.A. Patawaran

“But Manila was another life. It was another time. It was universes behind me. The woman who lived there, sheltered and shackled and dreaming of another place, such as this, this magical spot under the start-of-autumn sky adorned with brown leaves preparing for their eventual descent to the earth, this quiet side street near the busy, bustling Old Port in old Quebec, was no longer me.”
― A.A. Patawaran, Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official

“What were you thinking when you looked at me, scanning my face like the cover of a book? What was I thinking every time I looked away, as if those eyes would devour me, betray my secrets, steal my soul, reveal the pages of my life like an open book?”
― A.A. Patawaran, Manila Was A Long Time Ago - Official

“C'est comme si prendre du poids implique de perdre, mais je ne sais pas à quel jeu.”
― Marie-Noelle Hébert, La grosse laide

“Il n'y a pas de mot pour décrire le vide”
― Daphné B.

“Il y aura un après au »åé±ô³Ü²µ±ð.”
― Nicolas Lévesque, Phora: Sur ma pratique de psy

“S'il existe un ³¦¾±³¾±ð³Ù¾±Ã¨°ù±ð des mots arrachés aux êtres qui comprennent, je veux pouvoir m'y promener.”
― Élise Turcotte, L'apparition du chevreuil

“Barges from around the world floated up and down the river on their way to and from Montréal and the Great Lakes. I imagined the sailors aboard these ships—far from home, tired, excited, adventurous, lonely—and felt a little better knowing I wasn’t the only stranger in this place.”
― Emilie-Noelle Provost, The River is Everywhere

“Un homme né avec une cuillère d'argent dans la bouche qui, parce qu'il attribue l'importance de sa fortune à la hauteur de ses efforts, se permet de cracher sur quiconque rappelle à sa conscience que seuls ceux qui ont tout peuvent croire qu'ils n'ont besoin de personne.”
― Julia Posca, Le manifeste des parvenus: Le think big des penses-petit

“This was the near mythical monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups. The home of two dozen cloistered, contemplative monks. Who had built their abbey as far from civilization as they could get. Twenty-four men had stepped beyond the door. It had closed. And not another living soul had been admitted. Until today. Chief Inspector Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir and Captain Charbonneau were about to be let in. Their ticket was a dead man.”
― Louise Penny, The Beautiful Mystery