Hal Foster on his upbringing in Canada

SABA: ...Do you feel that your upbringing in Canada has had any particular influence on the kind of work that you do, or in any way on your life?
FOSTER: Oh, yes, greatly. It gave me all my backgrounds. I didn't do very well in school. Of course, I always won a prize in drawing, but so many kids in school were better than I was at learning, I suppose that's why I went to the outdoors. Halifax harbor was such a romantic place. Gosh, on a Summer day, look up the harbor, and the harbor is just covered with white canvas.

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SABA: It seems you had a very great sense of romance, even very young, you always were more interested in the world of nature and life as it was being lived, rather than what was being taught in school.
FOSTER: Yes. I was fairly interested in history, because I lived where history was made--in Canada, Newfoundland, and Nova. Scotia. The kind of history that appealed to me.