Quote

Here. Where I am anonymous and alone in a white room with no history and no parading. So I can make something unknown in the shape of this room. Where I am King of Corners.

Michael Ondaatje

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Michael Ondaatje
Age: 81
Born: 1943
Born: September 12
Author
Novelist
Pedagogue
Poet
Screenwriter
University Teacher
Writer
Ondaatje
White
Corners
History
Shape
Something
King
Make
Shapes
Kings
Parading
Room
Anonymous
Rooms
Rebirth
Alone
Unknown

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There are betrayals in war that are childlike compared with our human betrayals during peace. The new lovers enter the habits of the other. Things are smashed, revealed in a new light. This is done with nervous or tender sentences, although the heart is an organ of fire.
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All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps.
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Snap. Lady with dog. Lady on sofa half-naked. Snap. Naked lady. Lady next to dresser. Lady at window. Snap. Lady on balcony sunlight. (On New Orleans photographer E. J. Bellocq)
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The music of Gavin Bryars falls under no category. It is mongrel, full of sensuality and wit and is deeply moving. He is one of the few composers who can put slapstick and primal emotion alongside each other. He allows you to witness new wonders in the sounds around you by approaching them from a completely new angle. With a third ear maybe.
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Come. We must go deeper with no justice and no jokes.
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That's one of the great sadnesses of any life - knowing what you know now and then remembering what you did not know then.
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How can you smile as though your whole life hasn't capsized
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What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power. Nothing much of lasting value ever happens at the head table, held together by a familiar rhetoric. Those who already have power continue to glide along the familiar rut they have made for themselves.
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As a writer, one is busy with archaeology.
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Before the real city could be seen it had to be imagined, the way rumours and tall tales were a kind of charting.
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Truth, at the wrong time, can be dangerous.
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It's why you create characters: so you can argue with yourself.
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Research can be a big clunker. It's difficult to know how you can make the historical light.
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It's an odd state to be in, blowing the whistle on your home country.
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Sadness is very close to hate.
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We keep wanting to save those who are forlorn in this world. It’s a male habit.
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He knows that the only way he can accept losing her is if he can continue to hold her or be held by her. If they can somehow nurse each other out of this. Not with a wall.
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Right now, I have no idea what I will write or if I will write again.
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Tell me, is it possible to love someone who is not as smart as you are? ...But isn't it important for you to think she is smarter than you in order to fall in love? ...Why is that? Because we want to know things, how the pieces fit. Talkers seduce, words direct us into corners. We want more than anything to grow and change. Brave new world.
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