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" I see the poem or the novel ending with an open door. "

Michael Ondaatje

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" 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. "

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

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" Research can be a big clunker. It's difficult to know how you can make the historical light. "

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" 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. "

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" The past is still, for us, a place that is not safely settled. "

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" It's an odd state to be in, blowing the whistle on your home country. "

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" To write about someone like myself would be very limiting. "

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" You want to suggest something new, but at the same time, resolve the drama of the action in the novel. "

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" 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. "

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" When you're writing, it's as if you're within a kind of closed world. "

Michael Ondaatje

" 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. "

Michael Ondaatje

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

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" Truth, at the wrong time, can be dangerous. "

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" I'm a Canadian citizen. But I always want to feel at home in Sri Lanka. I'm a member of both countries. "

Michael Ondaatje

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

Michael Ondaatje

" 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. "

Michael Ondaatje

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

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. "

Michael Ondaatje

" As a writer, one is busy with archaeology. "

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. "

Michael Ondaatje

" You don't want to write your own opinion, you don't want to just represent yourself, but represent yourself through someone else. "

Michael Ondaatje

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

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. Meander if you want to get to town. "

Michael Ondaatje

" It doubles your perception, to write from the point of view of someone you're not. "

Michael Ondaatje