There is no beginning that is a blank page.
Michael Ondaatjeโs work taught me how to be at home in fragments, and how to think about a big story in carefully curated vignettes. All his books were odd, all of them โunfinishedโ the way Chopinโs รtudes are unfinished: no wasted gestures, no unnecessary notes.
The border is a marketplace. The invisible hand of the powerful governs the crossings.