Don't we forgive everything of a lover? We forgive selfishness, desire, guile. As long as we are the motive for it...There are some European words you can never translate properly into another language.
Michael OndaatjeRead
This last night we tear into each other, as if to wound, as if to find the key to everything before morning.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote speaks to the intense and sometimes painful dynamics of human connections, suggesting a search for understanding and truth in our interactions.
In this quote, Michael Ondaatje reflects on the complexity of relationships, especially in times of emotional turmoil. The imagery of tearing into each other suggests a raw and visceral confrontation, where individuals seek to uncover deeper truths about themselves and each other before the dawn. It highlights the idea that sometimes, in the heat of passionate exchanges, we uncover the essence of our bonds and the struggles inherent in understanding one another.
Themes
RelationshipsUnderstandingEmotionsConflictTruth
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the complexities of love during a relationship workshop.
More from Michael Ondaatje
All quotes βWhen we are young we do not look into mirrors. It is when we are old, concerned with our name, our legend, what our lives will mean to the future. We become vain with the names we own, our claims to have been the first eyes, the strongest army, the cleverest merchant. It is when he is old that Narcissus wants a graven image of himself.
Michael OndaatjeRead
Water is the exile, carried back in cans and flasks, the ghost between your hands and your mouth.
Michael OndaatjeRead
You must talk to me, Caravaggio. Or am I just a book? Something to be read, some creature to be tempted out of a loch and shot full of morphine, full of corridors, lies, loose vegetation, pockets of stones.
Michael OndaatjeRead
You don't want to write your own opinion, you don't want to just represent yourself, but represent yourself through someone else.
Michael OndaatjeRead
A man in a desert can hold absence in his cupped hands, knowing it is something that feeds him more than water.
Michael OndaatjeRead
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