Author details
All Michael Ondaatje Quotes
In the book the relationship with Katharine and Almasy is sort of only in the patient's mind.
Michael Ondaatje
64% of people like this quote
Right now, I have no idea what I will write or if I will write again.
Michael Ondaatje
59% of people like this quote
The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human. Meander if you want to get to town.
Michael Ondaatje
58% of people like this quote
I don't have a plan for a story when I sit down to write. I would get quite bored carrying it out.
Michael Ondaatje
57% of people like this quote
The past is still, for us, a place that is not safely settled.
Michael Ondaatje
56% of people like this quote
It's a responsibility of the writer to get the reader out of the story somehow.
Michael Ondaatje
56% of people like this quote
It's a discovery of a story when I write a book, a case of inching ahead on each page and discovering what's beyond in the darkness, beyond where you're writing.
Michael Ondaatje
56% of people like this quote
To write about someone like myself would be very limiting.
Michael Ondaatje
55% of people like this quote
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.
Michael Ondaatje
55% of people like this quote
Research can be a big clunker. It's difficult to know how you can make the historical light.
Michael Ondaatje
54% of people like this quote
It's why you create characters: so you can argue with yourself.
Michael Ondaatje
54% of people like this quote
I'm a Canadian citizen. But I always want to feel at home in Sri Lanka. I'm a member of both countries.
Michael Ondaatje
53% of people like this quote
You're getting everyone's point of view at the same time, which, for me, is the perfect state for a novel: a cubist state, the cubist novel.
Michael Ondaatje
53% of people like this quote
It doubles your perception, to write from the point of view of someone you're not.
Michael Ondaatje
52% of people like this quote
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