Canadian writer (1951- )
It seems like I always wrote, I just didn't think of it as a career choice. I just liked to tell stories ... to myself, to pen pals (I had a lot of them, all over the world). Of course this was in the days before computers were everywhere, and anyone could access the Web. You had to make an effort keeping up a correspondence, and the arrival of the mail once a day was a big deal. I think if modern technology had been around when I was a kid, I would never have left my bedroom except to take the dogs out for their run three times a day.
CHARLES DE LINT
interview with Kim Antieau, April 28, 2008
There's more to life than just surviving ... but ... sometimes just surviving is all you get.
CHARLES DE LINT
The Onion Girl
There are people who take the heart out of you, and there are people who put it back.
CHARLES DE LINT
"Dead Man's Shoes", The Ivory and the Horn
There are few joys to compare with the telling of a well-told tale.
CHARLES DE LINT
Yarrow: An Autumn Tale
There isn't a single day I don't do some writing -- if you don't, you won't have a book. When you're self-employed it is very easy to burn away your time instead -- answering e-mails, surfing the Internet, or hanging out with friends. You really must have the discipline to sit down and write every day. Most of what I am writing is living in the back of my head or in my subconscious. I find if I write every day, my subconscious will do the job for me.
CHARLES DE LINT
Locus Magazine, June 2003
Without mysteries, life would be very dull indeed. What would be left to strive for if everything were known?
CHARLES DE LINT
"Where Desert Spirits Crowd the Night", The Ivory and the Horn
The real problem is, people think life is a ladder, and it's really a wheel.
CHARLES DE LINT
The Ivory and the Horn
I believe a good writer can write a good book with any sort of character, in any sort of setting, but I prefer to write about the outsider. It might just be because I've been one (or perceived myself to be one) for so much of my life. But the simple fact of being marginalized immediately brings conflict to a story before the narrative even begins, and that's gold for a writer because it means that your character already has depth before events begin to unfold.
CHARLES DE LINT
"One Thing Leads to Another: An Interview with Charles de Lint", The Yalsa Hub, September 19, 2013
The best artists know what to leave out. They know how much of the support should show through as the pigment is applied, what details aren't necessary.
CHARLES DE LINT
"Dream Harder, Dream True", The Ivory and the Horn
We're all made of stories. When they finally put us underground, the stories are what will go on.
CHARLES DE LINT
attributed, Make it Matter