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Michael Ondaatje Quotes

Novelist

Michael Ondaatje, born on September 12, 1943, is a renowned Canadian novelist. His works are known for their unique narrative style and profound emotional expression, with notable titles including 'In the Skin of a Lion' and 'The English Patient'.

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All Ifs Writing Book Stories Knows Novel Desert Hands Fall Lovers Want World Character Country Heart Love Men Way Names Thinking

Famous Michael Ondaatje Quotes

“There's a lot of thievery involved in writing. You're breaking into other people's spaces and other people's stories.”

People Writing Stories Space Involved Thievery

Author:Michael Ondaatje

“Politically I also don't believe anymore that we can only have one voice to a story, it's like having one radio station to represent a country. You want the politics of any complicated situation to be complicated in a book of fiction or nonfiction.”

Want Believe Book Country Stories Voice Fiction Situation Don't Believe Radio Complicated Stations Nonfiction Radio Stations

Author:Michael Ondaatje

“When I write my novels I don't really have a huge plan beforehand; I don't have the whole plot and architecture, so the story is sort of discovered as I write it.”

Writing Whole Stories Novel Plans Huge Architecture Plot

Author:Michael Ondaatje

“For we live with those retrievals from childhood that coalesce and echo throughout our lives, the way shattered pieces of glass in a kaleidoscope reappear in new forms and are songlike in their refrains and rhymes, making up a single monologue. We live permanently in the recurrence of our own stories, whatever story we tell.”

Way Stories Form Pieces Our Lives Childhood Glasses Echoes Rhyme Shattered Refrain Making Up Monologues Kaleidoscope Recurrence

Author:Michael Ondaatje

“A love story is not about those who lost their heart but about those who find that sullen inhabitant who, when it is stumbled upon, means the body can fool no one, can fool nothing—not the wisdom of sleep or the habit of social graces. It is a consuming of oneself and the past.”

Heart Mean Stories Body Past Lost Social Sleep Grace Fool Habit Oneself Love Story Consuming Sullen Social Graces

Book:The English Patient

Source: The English Patient

“Moments before sleep are when she feels most alive, leaping across fragments of the day, bringing each moment into the bed with her like a child with schoolbooks and pencils. The day seems to have no order until these times, which are like a ledger for her, her body full of stories and situations.”

Feels Children Moments Stories Body Seems Order Sleep Situation Alive Bed Pencils Fragments

Book:The English Patient

Source: The English Patient

“She entered the story knowing she would emerge from it feeling she had been immersed in the lives of others, in plots that stretched back twenty years, her body full of sentences and moments, as if awaking from sleep with a heaviness caused by unremembered dreams.”

Ifs Years Moments Stories Feelings Dream Body Sleep Knowing Twenties Sentences Plot Lives Of Others Heaviness

Author: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.”

Way Character Stories Path Tests

Author:Michael Ondaatje

“Over the years, confusing fragments, lost corners of stories, have a clearer meaning when seen in a new light, a different place.”

Years Different Stories Light Lost Corners Confusing Fragments Different Place

Book:The Cat's Table

Source: The Cat's Table

“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.”

Writing Book Stories Cases Darkness Pages Discovery Discovering

Author:Michael Ondaatje

“Once I've discovered the story, I might restructure it, maybe move things around, set up a clue that something is going to happen later, but that happens much later in an editorial capacity.”

Stories Might Happens Moving Capacity Clue Editorials Restructure

Author:Michael Ondaatje

“I tend not to know what the plot is or the story is or even the theme. Those things come later, for me.”

Knows Stories Theme Plot

Author:Michael Ondaatje

“It's a responsibility of the writer to get the reader out of the story somehow.”

Stories Responsibility Reader

Author:Michael Ondaatje

“I don't have a plan for a story when I sit down to write. I would get quite bored carrying it out.”

Writing Stories Plans Bored

Author:Michael Ondaatje

About the Author

Born: September 12, 1943
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 200

Books & Sources

The English PatientRelated source material

DivisaderoRelated source material

In the Skin of a LionRelated source material

The Cat's TableRelated source material

Running in the FamilyRelated source material

Coming Through SlaughterRelated source material

The English Patient: A NovelRelated source material

The English Patient: Special EditionRelated source material

WarlightRelated source material

Anil's GhostRelated source material

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