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.
Michael OndaatjeRead
Her life with others no longer interests him. He wants only her stalking beauty, her theatre of expressions. He wants the minute secret reflection between them, the depth of field minimal, their foreignness intimate like two pages of a closed book.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The speaker desires an intimate connection with a loved one that transcends external distractions.
This quote vividly describes a profound longing for deep emotional and intimate connection with a partner. It conveys the idea that true engagement and passion arise from a shared understanding and connection that exists beneath the surface, away from the complexities and distractions of the outside world. The imagery of 'two pages of a closed book' suggests a closeness that is both exclusive and rich with unspoken understanding.
Themes
LoveIntimacyConnectionDesireUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a romantic speech to express feelings for a partner.
More from Michael Ondaatje
All quotes →When we are young we do not look into mirrors. It is when we are old, concerned with our name, our legend, what our lives will mean to the future. We become vain with the names we own, our claims to have been the first eyes, the strongest army, the cleverest merchant. It is when he is old that Narcissus wants a graven image of himself.
Michael OndaatjeRead
Water is the exile, carried back in cans and flasks, the ghost between your hands and your mouth.
Michael OndaatjeRead
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.
Michael OndaatjeRead
You don't want to write your own opinion, you don't want to just represent yourself, but represent yourself through someone else.
Michael OndaatjeRead
A man in a desert can hold absence in his cupped hands, knowing it is something that feeds him more than water.
Michael OndaatjeRead
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