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This last night we tear into each other, as if to wound, as if to find the key to everything before morning.
Michael Ondaatje
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote speaks to the intense and sometimes painful dynamics of human connections, suggesting a search for understanding and truth in our interactions.

In this quote, Michael Ondaatje reflects on the complexity of relationships, especially in times of emotional turmoil. The imagery of tearing into each other suggests a raw and visceral confrontation, where individuals seek to uncover deeper truths about themselves and each other before the dawn. It highlights the idea that sometimes, in the heat of passionate exchanges, we uncover the essence of our bonds and the struggles inherent in understanding one another.

Themes

RelationshipsUnderstandingEmotionsConflictTruth

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a discussion about the complexities of love during a relationship workshop.

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Don't we forgive everything of a lover? We forgive selfishness, desire, guile. As long as we are the motive for it...There are some European words you can never translate properly into another language.
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Water is the exile, carried back in cans and flasks, the ghost between your hands and your mouth.
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You must talk to me, Caravaggio. Or am I just a book? Something to be read, some creature to be tempted out of a loch and shot full of morphine, full of corridors, lies, loose vegetation, pockets of stones.
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A man in a desert can hold absence in his cupped hands, knowing it is something that feeds him more than water.
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Quote by Michael Ondaatje | QuoteProject