“ Her life with others no longer interests him. He wants only her stalking beauty, her theatre of expressions. He wants the minute secret reflection between them, the depth of field minimal, their forei… Michael Ondaatje
“ The Englishman left months ago, Hana, he's with the Bedouin or in some English garden with its phlox and shit. Michael Ondaatje
“ Around three a.m. he feels a presence in the room. He sees, for the pulse of a moment, a figure at the foot of his bed, against the wall or painted onto it perhaps, not quite discernible in the darkne… Michael Ondaatje
“ I can never understand someone by his strengths. Nothing is revealed there. I can only understand people by their weaknesses. Michael Ondaatje
“ She had always wanted words, she loved them, grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape. Whereas I thought words bent emotions like sticks in water. Michael Ondaatje
“ She had always wanted words, she loved them; grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape. Michael Ondaatje
“ The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human. Michael Ondaatje
“ The trouble with words is that you can really talk yourself into a corner. You can't fuck yourself into a corner."That's a man talking," muttered Hana. Michael Ondaatje
“ In spite of her desire for a contained universe, her life felt scattered, full of many small moments, without great purpose. That is what she thought, though what is most untrustworthy about our natur… Michael Ondaatje
“ What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power. 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 s… Michael Ondaatje
“ But there was a discipline, it was just that we didn't understand. We thought he was formless, but I think now he was tormented by order, what was outside it. He tore apart the plot - see his music wa… Michael Ondaatje
“ The sloshing of their hooves in the paddy field that I heard thirty yards away, my car door open for the breeze, the haunting sound I was caught within as if creatures of magnificence were undressing… Michael Ondaatje
“ ...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
“ 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… Michael Ondaatje
“ 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 reco… Michael Ondaatje
“ She is a woman of honour and smartness whose wild leaves out luck, always taking risks, and there is something in her brow now, that only she can recognize in a mirror. Ideal and idealistic in that sh… Michael Ondaatje
