Quotes by Michael Ondaatje
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It's a responsibility of the writer to get the reader out of the story somehow.
Anil's Ghost is a pretty serious book, but you do want to have a break.
You're getting everyone's point of view at the same time, which, for me, is the perfect state for a novel: a cubist state, the cubist novel.
I grew up in a country that was very different - the germs of racism were there then, I just wasn't aware of it.
Once I've discovered the story, I might restructure it, maybe move things around, set up a clue that something is going to happen later, but that happens much later in an editorial capacity.
You don't want to write your own opinion, you don't want to just represent yourself, but represent yourself through someone else.
The last three books are much more a case of a moment of history, what happened almost by accident or coincidence, like being in the same elevator or lifeboat.
It's an odd state to be in, blowing the whistle on your home country.
I see the poem or the novel ending with an open door.
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