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

Michael Ondaatje

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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. "

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

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" 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. "

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" 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. "

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

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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. "

Michael Ondaatje