We are expanded by tears, we are told, not reduced by them.

- Michael Ondaatje

We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characte…

- Michael Ondaatje

She had always wanted words, she loved them; grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape.

- Michael Ondaatje

I believe this. When we meet those we fall in love with, there is an aspect of our spirit that is historian, a bit of a pedant who reminisces or reme…

- Michael Ondaatje

Death means you are in the third person.

- Michael Ondaatje

There is the hidden presence of others in us, even those we have known briefly. We contain them for the rest of our lives, at every border that we cr…

- Michael Ondaatje

Most of the time in our world, truth is just opinion.

- Michael Ondaatje

There is a story, always ahead of you. Barely existing. Only gradually do you attach yourself to it and feed it. You discover the carapace that will …

- 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