Michael Ondaatje Quotes
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We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on by body when I am dead. I believe in such cartography - to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. We are not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience.
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We are expanded by tears, we are told, not reduced by them.
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Everyone has to scratch on walls somewhere or they go crazy
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There is the hidden presence of others in us, even those we have known briefly. We contain them for the rest of our lives, at every border that we cross.
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I believe this. When we meet those we fall in love with, there is an aspect of our spirit that is historian, a bit of a pedant who reminisces or remembers a meeting when the other has passed by innocently…but all parts of the body must be ready for the other, all atoms must jump in one direction for desire to occur.
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Love is the use one makes of another.
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She had always wanted words, she loved them; grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape.
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From this point on, she whispered, we will either find or lose our souls.
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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.
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There's more danger in the violence you don't face.
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The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human.
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The trouble with all of us is we are where we shouldn't be.