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 OndaatjeIt's a discovery of a story when I write a book, a case of inching ahead on each page and discovering what's beyond in the darkness, beyond where you're writing.
Michael OndaatjeI tend not to know what the plot is or the story is or even the theme. Those things come later, for me.
Michael OndaatjeA man in a desert can hold absence in his cupped hands, knowing it is something that feeds him more than water.
Michael OndaatjeNicholas Temelcoff is famous on the bridge, a daredevil. He is given all the difficult jobs and he takes them. He descends into the air with no fear. He is a solitary. He assembles ropes, brushes the tackle and pulley at his waist, and falls off the bridge like a diver over the edge of a boat.
Michael Ondaatje