It's a responsibility of the writer to get the reader out of the story somehow. Michael Ondaatje More Quotes by Michael Ondaatje More Quotes From Michael Ondaatje Read him slowly, dear girl, you must read Kipling slowly. Watch carefully where the commas fall so you can discover the natural pauses. He is a writer who used pen and ink. He looked up from the page a lot, I believe, stared through his window and listened to birds, as most writers who are alone do. Some do not know the names of birds, though he did. Your eye is too quick and North American. Think about the speed of his pen. What an appalling, barnacled old first paragraph it is otherwise. Michael Ondaatje girl believe fall Some events take a lifetime to reveal their damage and influence. Michael Ondaatje damage influence events Politically I don't believe anymore that we can only have one voice to a story, it's like having one radio station to represent a country. Michael Ondaatje believe country The one of the great sadnesses of any life is knowing what you know now and then remembering what you did not know then. Michael Ondaatje now-and-then sadness remember When I read biographies, I skip the first thirty pages about the childhood because it doesn't seem interesting to me. Michael Ondaatje childhood biographies interesting Politically I also don't believe anymore that we can only have one voice to a story, it's like having one radio station to represent a country. You want the politics of any complicated situation to be complicated in a book of fiction or nonfiction. Michael Ondaatje believe country book If you look at Japanese film, it is made up of collage or bricolage, it is made up of lists, and suddenly when you stand back from the lists you begin to see the pattern of a life. Michael Ondaatje patterns lists looks I've always loved history and history is collage, it is a juxtaposition of the good and the bad and the strange, and how you place those sentences together changes the whole mood of a history. Michael Ondaatje juxtaposition strange together I want the marginality to come into the center. This is the thing I was conscious of growing up, when I later lived in England. I saw all these war movies that came out shortly after the war, and they were all about the war being fought by Englishmen or Americans, there were no other "allies" in it - from India or Australia, etc. Michael Ondaatje growing-up australia war There always should be something hanging unfinished before a scene ends so that there's a reason for going to the next scene. Michael Ondaatje next scene reason There's a lot of thievery involved in writing. You're breaking into other people's spaces and other people's stories. Michael Ondaatje space writing people People don't write about kids; you have to give them a lot of freedom, and that causes anarchy and that causes farce. Michael Ondaatje writing kids people I kind of was shoveled onto a boat at 11 and went to England. I didn't have any parent watching over me. It was very free and may have been a bit of a scary time for me, but I really don't remember much about the voyage apart from playing ping-pong a lot with a couple friends. Michael Ondaatje scary couple parent 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 me you trust time
