Quote, unquote: Taking away the crumbs

"The point is not that one way is better than the other, but that relying only on market forces to determine what survives as literature in Canada seems unnecessarily narrow. The market culls a certain way, that’s all.  It isn’t the best way for all things, and it isn’t the only way.  And in any event these numbers are minuscule compared to most other kinds of costs – take your pick from increasing Defence budgets to expanding prison systems.  They’re crumbs by most federal budgetary standards.  Do we really need to take the crumbs away, too?"

-- Michael Lithgow, writing in the Art Threat blog about the Harper government's attitudes towards literature