{"author":"Mordecai Richler","author_id":"Mordecai+Richler","total_quotes":31,"quotes":[{"text":"...If I were an angel of the Lord, I would mark the doors of each of my children's homes with an X, so that plague and misfortune would pass over them. Alas, I lack the qualifications. So when there was still world and time enough I fretted. I nagged. I corrected. I got everything wrong.","author":"Mordecai Richler","tags":["babies-kids-children-givingup","concern-for-others","fatherhood","fret","fretting","maternal-love","maternalism","motherhood","paternal-love","paternal-protection","paternalism","protect-my-sleeping-babes","worry"],"id":1933,"author_id":"Mordecai+Richler"},{"text":"There are ten commandments  right? Well  it's like an exam. You get eight out of ten  you're just about top of the class.","author":"Mordecai Richler","tags":["morality","ethics"],"id":7194,"author_id":"Mordecai+Richler"},{"text":"Better my right hand should have been cut off. Go know I was setting in motion events that would lead to the ruin of one of the few truly good men I ever met.","author":"Mordecai Richler","tags":["accident","avoidable","curse","death","depressing","doomed","friend","loss","preventable","regret"],"id":45653,"author_id":"Mordecai+Richler"},{"text":"Listen your Lordship  I'm a respecter of institutions. Even in Paris  I remained a Canadian. I puffed hashish  but I didn't inhale.","author":"Mordecai Richler","tags":["canada","canadians"],"id":78254,"author_id":"Mordecai+Richler"},{"text":"Without a doubt, it [Canada] is the land God gave to Cain.","author":"Mordecai Richler","tags":["1800-s","canada","culture","harsh-climate","harsh-weather","north-america","pioneers","settlers","voyagers"],"id":81849,"author_id":"Mordecai+Richler"},{"text":"One final thought. In the years leading up to my trial, whenever I was caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the highway leading to my cottage, creeping along behind a battered, rust eaten pick-up truck with a sticker on its rear bumper that read JESUS SAVES, I used to think don't count on it, buster. Now I am no longer sure.","author":"Mordecai Richler","tags":["bumper-sticker","christianity","exonerated","faith","free","let-go","religion"],"id":98176,"author_id":"Mordecai+Richler"},{"text":"Shame on you. Don't tell me you've been married for an hour and you've already got eyes for another woman.","author":"Mordecai Richler","tags":["celebration","chastisement","debauchery","drunk","honeymoon","humour","marriage","philandering","true-love","wedding"],"id":145353,"author_id":"Mordecai+Richler"},{"text":"I'm rambling again. Wandering off the point. But this is the true story of my wasted life...","author":"Mordecai Richler","tags":["memory","regret","reminiscence","rue","scattered-thoughts","wistful"],"id":146781,"author_id":"Mordecai+Richler"},{"text":"...And then I began to drift, fighting tears. I used to come here with Miriam. Miriam, my heart's desire. What was troubling her this morning? Maybe Kate had reproached her on the phone for leaving me? How dare Kate. Oh yeah? Go for it, my darling. Remind her of what she's missing. No, don't.","author":"Mordecai Richler","tags":["children-of-divorce","divorce","grief","grieving","lost-love","memories","painful","regret","spontaneous-grief"],"id":156353,"author_id":"Mordecai+Richler"},{"text":"We could never agree about Boogie and I didn't share Miriam's reverence for professors. In fact, just in case I haven't mentioned it before, the pride of my office wall is my framed high-school graduation certificate, lit from above. Miriam has reproached me for it. 'Take it down, darling,' she once pleaded. But it still hangs there.","author":"Mordecai Richler","tags":["anti-snob-honesty","diploma","highschool","humbleness","humility","shrewd"],"id":156638,"author_id":"Mordecai+Richler"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":31,"pages":4,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}