Literary Birthday – 20 July – Alistair MacLeod

Alistair MacLeod was born 20 July 1936, and died 20 April 2014.

Seven Quotes

1. I write a single sentence at a time, and then I read it aloud.
2. I like to think that I am telling a story rather than writing it.
3. No one has ever said that life is to be easy. Only that it is to be lived.
4. There is a kind of belief among my students that things that are true are interesting. But most things that are true are not interesting. Four pages describing how I got up and brushed my teeth in the morning would kill you.
5. If people aren’t creating literature, there would be nothing for people to criticise.
6. Today there is a division between those who write about literature and those who create it. I, obviously, don’t think that should be there.
7. Measure twice; cut once.

Alistair MacLeod was a Canadian novelist, short story writer, and academic. His 1999 novel No Great Mischief was voted Atlantic Canada’s greatest book of all time.

by Amanda Patterson

Please click here for our Literary Birthday Calendar