Top 26 Quotes by Michael Ondaatje

I don't see novels ending with any real sense of closure.

To write about someone like myself would be very limiting.

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.

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.

A writer uses a pen instead of a scalpel or blow torch.

It's why you create characters: so you can argue with yourself.

As a writer, one is busy with archaeology.

Right now, I have no idea what I will write or if I will write again.

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.

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.