Michael Ondaatje Quotes

A collection of quotes by Michael Ondaatje.

Michael Ondaatje is a renowned Sri Lankan-Canadian author. Born on September 12, 1943, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, he later moved to Canada and became a Canadian citizen. Ondaatje is best known for his novel "The English Patient," which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1992 and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film. His other notable works include "In the Skin of a Lion," "Anil's Ghost," and "Warlight." Ondaatje's writing is praised for its lyrical prose and ability to explore complex themes of identity, memory, and history. He continues to be recognized as a prominent figure in contemporary literature.

A blind lover, don't knowwhat I love till I write it out

A blind lover, don't knowwhat I love till I write it out

Michael Ondaatje

Love Writing

I believe this. When we meet those we fall in love with, the

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 innocentlybut all parts of the body must be ready for the other, all atoms must jump in one direction for desire to occur.

Michael Ondaatje

Love

...sometimes we enter art to hide within it. It is where we

...sometimes we enter art to hide within it. It is where we can go to save ourselves, where a third-person voice protects us.

Michael Ondaatje

Life Art Protection

From this point on in our lives, she had whispered to him ea

From this point on in our lives, she had whispered to him earlier, we will either find or lose our souls.

Michael Ondaatje

War Love Romance Michael Ondaatje The English Patient Almasy

He knows that the only way he can accept losing her is if he

He knows that the only way he can accept losing her is if he can continue to hold her or be held by her. If they can somehow nurse each other out of this. Not with a wall.

Michael Ondaatje

Love Loss

Because we want to know things, how the pieces fit. Talkers

Because we want to know things, how the pieces fit. Talkers seduce, words direct us into corners. We want more than anything to grow and change. Brave new world.

Michael Ondaatje

Love Romance Novels Michael Ondaatje The English Patient

But nothing is said of the closeness between two people: how

But nothing is said of the closeness between two people: how they grew in the shade of each other's presence. No one speaks of that exchange of gift and character --- the way a person took on and recognized in himself the smile of a lover. Individuals are seen only in the context of these swirling social tides.

Michael Ondaatje

Life Change Love

You built your walls too, she tells him. So I have my wall.

You built your walls too, she tells him. So I have my wall. She says it glittering in a beauty he cannot stand. She with her beautiful clothes with her pale face that laughs at everyone who smiles at her...

Michael Ondaatje

Beauty

Everything that ever happened to me that was important happe

Everything that ever happened to me that was important happened in the desert.

Michael Ondaatje

Love Romance Desert Novels Michael Ondaatje The English Patient

In the book the relationship with Katharine and Almasy is so

In the book the relationship with Katharine and Almasy is sort of only in the patient's mind.

Michael Ondaatje

Relationship

That's Anil's path. She grows up in Sri Lanka, goes and gets

That's Anil's path. She grows up in Sri Lanka, goes and gets educated abroad, and through fate or chance gets brought back by the Human Rights Commission to investigate war crimes.

Michael Ondaatje

War

The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this

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

Trust