Marian Engel quotes:

There is a difference between art and life and that difference is readability.

Happiness is a fragile thing, and alcohol, as I know from the house I grew up in, is dangerous to it.

Remember that it is not enough to have everything around you beautiful, remember that there must also be change and flux, because it is through change that we pretend that we can make decisions, and keep our pride, and go on pretending that both change and choice exist.

All intellectual missionaries tend to lechery.

There's a kind of virgin one only becomes with difficulty.

I have tried and failed to lead a conventional life. When I try to be like other people, I fall out of bed.