Beauty, Like Male Ballet Dancers, Makes Some

If You Caricature Friends In Your First Novel They Will Be Upset, But If You Don't They Will Feel Betrayed.

Actually, When It Comes To Knocking The Canadian Cultural Scene, Nobody Outdoes Canadians, Myself Included. We Are Veritable Masters Of Self-deprecation.

In, 1950, At The Age, 19 I Dropped Out Of St. George William College In Montreal, As It Then Was, And Sailed For England On The Franconia. Foolishly, No Arrogantly, Believing I Could Put Canada And Its Picayune Problems Behind Me, Never Dreaming It Would Become The Raw Material Of Most Of My Fiction And Non-fiction. Or That I Would Care So Deeply About Its Surviving Intact.

I Must Speak The Truth, Even At The Risk Of Being Ostracized By My Fellow Scribblers. In Fact, Anticipating Their Rage, I Have Already Applied For A Place In The Canada Council's Witness-protection Program. This Because, Much As It Pains Me To Turn On My Kind, I Fear The Time Has Come To Admit That Far Too Many Celebrated Writers Were Outrageous Liars, Philanderers, Drunks, Druggies, Unsuitable Babysitters, Plagiarists, Psychopaths, Parasites, Cowards, Indifferent Dads Or Moms And Bad Credit Risks.

Beauty, Like Male Ballet Dancers, Makes Some Men Afraid.