Battle Quote by Michael Ondaatje

“The desert could not be claimed or owned — it was a piece of cloth carried by winds, never held down by stones, and given a hundred shifting names before Canterbury existed, long before battles and treaties quilted Europe and the East ... All of us, even those with European homes and children in the distance, wished to remove the clothing of our countries. It was a place of faith. We disappeared into landscape.”

Michael Ondaatje

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More by Michael Ondaatje

“In spite of this, our table's status on the Oronsay continued to be minimal, while those at the Captain's Table were constantly toasting to one another's significance. That was a small lesson I learned on the journey. What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power. Nothing much of lasting value ever happens…

Michael Ondaatje

He will hear the rain before he feels it, a clicking on the dry grass, on the olive leaves.

Michael Ondaatje

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“Whenever her father was alone with a dog in a house he would lean over and smell the skin at the base of its…

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“...those who had risked everything at a riverbend on a left turn and so discovered a fortune.”

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“All over the world there must be people like us, Anna had said then, wounded in some way by falling in love - seemingly…

Michael Ondaatje

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Her father had taught her about hands. About a dog's paws. Whenever her father was alone with a dog in a house he would lean over and smell the skin at the base of its paw. This, he would say, as if coming away from a brandy snifter, is the greatest smell in the world! A bouquet! Great rumours of…

Michael Ondaatje

What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power. Nothing much of lasting value ever happens at…

Michael Ondaatje

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There's more danger in the violence you don't face.

Michael Ondaatje

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From this point on, she whispered, we will either find or lose our souls.

Michael Ondaatje

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“You know it is the most relaxed thing when you when you sit with a best friend and you know there is nothing you…

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“There was no control except the " mood of his power... and it is for this reason it is good you never heard him play someplace where the weather for instance could change the next series of notes-- then you should never have heard him at all. He was never recorded. He stayed away while others moved into wax history,…

Michael Ondaatje

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…

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This is, for an accomplished Latino, an accomplished African American, an accomplished anyone who disproves stereotypes, it's a constant battle in your life.

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“Which people take the time to care for their souls, these days? I reckon not many. But...hear this: I think that maybe in our lives -- in our scrabbling for food, in the washing of our bodies and warming of them, in our small daily battles -- we can forget our souls. We do not tend to them, as if…

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Only great and general battles can produce great results

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Life is a battle of wits, and many people have to fight it unarmed.

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Pain held no terror for him. Pain was, if not friend, then family, something he had grown up with in his crèche, learning to…

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There's little in taking or giving, There's little in water or wine: This living, this living, this living, Was never a project of mine. Oh, hard is the struggle, and sparse is The gain of the one at the top, For art is a form of catharsis, And love is a permanent flop, And work is the province of cattle,…

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When I step into the batters box. The fans, the noise, the cheers, they all disappear. For that moment, the world is just a…

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I knew Jimmy Dean. He tested for 'Battle Cry'. Paul Newman tested for 'Battle Cry'. I did nine tests to finally get that role.

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“When we let go of our battles and open our heart to things as they are, then we come to rest in the present moment. This is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice. Only in this moment can we discover that which is timeless. Only here can we find the love that we seek. Love in the past…

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Love is a battle," said Marie-Claude, still smiling. "And I plan to go on fighting. To the end." Love is a battle?" said Franz. "Well, I don't feel at all like fighting." And he left.

Milan Kundera