Michael Ondaatje Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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I think it's flattering when people say I'm a role model, but I don't think I am. It depends on your outlook on the word 'role model.' I'm not perfect or anything. I just consider it a great compliment.
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The shelf life of the average trade book is somewhere between milk and yogurt.
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And the success of the union movement, historically, has always been to benefit all working men and women - not just people who belong to the union.
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My youngest sister belonged to a group called the Twelve Tribes for many years. She recently left, with her husband and four children. Talking to her about her experiences in the group is fascinating, moving, and enlightening.
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One needs to live every day according to God's commandments. And then any kind of difficulty or unpleasantness will be manageable.
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Sales don't always have anything to do with good or brilliant or original. Sales are about appeal.
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Poor people have more fun than rich people, they say; and I notice it's the rich people who keep saying it.
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In almost every marriage there is a selfish and an unselfish partner. A pattern is set up and soon becomes inflexible, of one person always making the demands and one person always giving way.
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Make no mistake: The organization of the working class must be both economic and political. The capitalist is organized upon both lines. You must attack him on both.
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I don't think I can speak of the achievements of Indian cinema because it's so large next to me. It's not stopping. It's ever-growing. We are going towards the right direction. We are evolving as a filmmaking industry as actors, directors, producers, singers, musicians. Everybody just pushing the boundaries.
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Whereupon, at the tender age of thirteen, I set upon the path of playing nothing but hookers.
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Freedom is popular. Bring it on.
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I feel very meditative when I ride. A horse does not know whether my movie is a hit or a flop or what is happening in my relationship.
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On Friday night, if you want to go out on a date with your wife or your girlfriend, nothing on Netflix competes with that, right? Because you're getting out; that's what you're doing. If you don't want to put your shoes on, nothing in the cinema competes with the worst thing on Netflix.
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The books I write because I want to read them, the games because I want to play them, and stories I tell because I find them exciting personally.
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'Everyone exploits somebody.'
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Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.
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Have you ever seen people so ugly that you have to get someone else to verify it?
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And that's why I chose on purpose not to have a death scene. We've seen them in a million movies and it's too much like cranking the tears out. I didn't want that scene.
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He treasured her, treasured her tears, treasured her love for others. Her heart might even be big enough to fill that empty space in his own chest. Perhaps she could be his heart as well.
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My mother had abandoned the family, so grandmother raised me. And she was instrumental in that she taught me that the world is a glorious place. She taught me to embrace humanity. And she'd say there's never an excuse for joy. And to be thankful.
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Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon or star.
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We are expanded by tears, we are told, not reduced by them.
