"I propose that we use the term "koob,"  book spelt backwards, to describe [junk reading]... I've sold a lot of koobs in my day and plan to continue to do so, but I do respect books and I think a distinction must be made."

~ Jack McClelland (1922 - 2004) President of McClelland & Stewart, interviewed in 1973, quoted by James King in Jack:  A Life with Writers, The Story of Jack McClelland (1999)

"When I started out as a scribbler, something like fifty years ago, you could fit all of Canada's quality writers into a Volkswagen and still have room to pick up a hitchhiker.  These happy days we could just about fill a bus."

~ Mordecai Richler (Jan. 27, 1931 - July 3, 2001) Canadian novelist, essayist, screenwriter, quoted in the National Post, Dec. 11, 1999.