Michael Ondaatje quotes - page 2

How can you smile as though your whole life hasn't capsized. (Michael Ondaatje)
I am not in love with him, I am in love with ghosts. So is he, he's in love with ghosts. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
Her hand touched me at the wrist. "If I gave you my life, you would drop it. Wouldn't you?" I didn't say anything. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
... sometimes we enter art to hide within it. It is where we can go to save ourselves, where a third-person voice protects us. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
Everyone has to scratch on walls somewhere or they go crazy. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
The joyful will stoop with sorrow, and when you have gone to the earth I will let my hair grow long for your sake, I will wander through the wilderness in the skin of a lion. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
Do you understand the sadness of geography? View quote
Michael Ondaatje
There is a story, always ahead of you. Barely existing. Only gradually do you attach yourself to it and feed it. You discover the carapace that will contain and test your character. You will find in this way the path of your life. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
I believe in such cartography – to be marked by nature, not just label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books.... All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
all this Beethoven and rain. (Michael Ondaatje)
All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
We are expanded by tears, we are told, not reduced by them. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
How we are almost nothing. We think, in our youth, we are the centre of the universe, but we simply respond, go this way or that by accident, survive or improve by the luck of the draw, with little choice or determination on our part. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
she had a laugh that hinted it had rolled around once or twice in the mud. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
A postcard. Neat handwriting fills the rectangle. Half my days I cannot bear to touch you. The rest of my time I feel like it doesn't matter if I will ever see you again. It isn't the morality, it's how much you can bear. No date. No name attached. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
She had always wanted words, she loved them; grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
We all have an old knot in the heart we wish to untie. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
... the heart is an organ of fire. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
I'll be looking at the moon, but I'll be seeing you. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
This last night we tear into each other, as if to wound, as if to find the key to everything before morning. (Michael Ondaatje)
Truth, at the wrong time, can be dangerous. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
The past is still, for us, a place that is not safely settled. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
It doubles your perception, to write from the point of view of someone you're not. View quote
Michael Ondaatje
The last three books are much more a case of a moment of history, what happened almost by accident or coincidence, like being in the same elevator or lifeboat. View quote
Michael Ondaatje