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Michael Ondaatje

Michael Ondaatje Quotes

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Famous Michael Ondaatje Quotes

“What he would say, he cannot say to this woman whose openness is like a wound, whose youth is not mortal yet. He cannot alter what he loves most in her, her lack of compromise, where the romance of the poems she loves still sits with ease in the real world. Outside these qualities he knows there is no order in the world.”

KnowsWorldStillsRealRomanceOrderQualityYouthWoundsCompromiseMortalsEaseOpennessReal World
Book:The English Patient
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“Why are you not smarter? It's only the rich who can't afford to be smart. They're compromised. They got locked years ago into privilege. They have to protect their belongings. No one is meaner than the rich. Trust me. But they have to follow the rules of their shitty civilised world. They declare war, they have honour, and they can't leave. But you two. We three. We're free.”

WorldYearsTwoWarThreeRichProtectSmartYears AgoPrivilegeBelongingHonourLockedSmarterTrust MeBeing SmartCivilised
Author:Michael Ondaatje
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“Her father had taught her about hands. About a dog's paws. Whenever her father was alone with a dog in a house he would lean over and smell the skin at the base of its paw. This, he would say, as if coming away from a brandy snifter, is the greatest smell in the world! A bouquet! Great rumours of travel! She would pretend disgust, but the dog's paw was a wonder: the smell of it never suggested dirt. It's a cathedral! her father had said, so-and-so's garden, that field of grasses, a walk through cyclamen--a concentration of hints of all the paths the animal had taken during the day.”

IfsWorldSaidHandsFatherHouseWalksAnimalWonderPathTakenDogFieldsTaughtGardenSkinsSmellGrassConcentrationDisgustingDirtHintsCathedralsPawsRumoursBouquetsBrandy
Book:The English Patient
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“Tell me, is it possible to love someone who is not as smart as you are? ...But isn't it important for you to think she is smarter than you in order to fall in love? ...Why is that? 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.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldWantImportantOrderFallGrowsPiecesFitSmartDirectBraveFalling In LoveCornersNew WorldSmarterLove SomeoneSeducingTalkersBrave New World
Author:Michael Ondaatje
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