Quotes from In the Skin of a Lion

“Everyone has to scratch on walls somewhere or they go crazy”
― Michael Ondaatje, quote from In the Skin of a Lion

“The joyful will stoop with sorrow, and when you have gone to the earth I will let my hair grow long for your sake, I will wander through the wilderness in the skin of a lion”
― Michael Ondaatje, quote from In the Skin of a Lion

“The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human.”
― Michael Ondaatje, quote from In the Skin of a Lion

“Before the real city could be seen it had to be imagined, the way rumours and tall tales were a kind of charting.”
― Michael Ondaatje, quote from In the Skin of a Lion

“He came to this country like a torch on fire and he swallowed air as he walked forward and he gave out light”
― Michael Ondaatje, quote from In the Skin of a Lion

“Nicholas 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, quote from In the Skin of a Lion

“The rain comes through their thin cotton clothes against their muscles. Alice sweeps back her wet hair. A sudden flinging of sheet lighting and Clara sees Alice subliminal in movement almost rising up into the air, shirt removed, so her body can meet the rain, the rest of her ascent lost to darkness till the next brief flutter of light when they hold a birch tree in their clasped hands, lean back and swing within the rain.
They crawl delirious together in the blackness. There is no moon. There is the moon flower in its small power of accuracy, like a compass, pointing to where the moon is, so they can bay towards its absence.”
― Michael Ondaatje, quote from In the Skin of a Lion

“There was a time when I could have slept with his friend Briffa, for instance. Around him the air was always fraught with possibilities.”
― Michael Ondaatje, quote from In the Skin of a Lion

“Commissioner Harris at the far end stared along the mad pathway. This was his first child and it had already become a murderer.”
― Michael Ondaatje, quote from In the Skin of a Lion

“He can think now only of objects. Something alive, just one small grey bird on a branch, will break his heart.”
― Michael Ondaatje, quote from In the Skin of a Lion

“Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human.”
― Michael Ondaatje, quote from In the Skin of a Lion

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.