“The reader cannot create; that has been done for him by the author.”

— Robertson Davies, A Voice from the Attic (1960)

About Robertson Davies

1913 – 1995

Canadian novelist, playwright and critic.

“Work is a dangerous and destructive drug, and should be called by its right name, which is Fatigue.”

“Our age has robbed millions of the simplicity of ignorance, and has so far failed to lift them to the simplicity of wisdom.”

“The past is only partly irrecoverable.”

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

“Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue.”

“If eyes were made for seeing, then beauty is its own excuse for being.”

“The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness.”

“Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.”

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.”