SOURCE: “Moving to the Clear: Michael Ondaatje,” in Twelve Voices: Interviews with Canadian Poets, Borealis Press, 1980, pp. 129-44.

In the following interview, which was conducted in 1978, Ondaatje discusses his poetry, particularly the creative process.

[Jon Pearce]: When did you start to write? Did you write at all in England when you lived there as a teen-ager?

[Michael Ondaatje]: No. I think I did write one short story, but I didn't have much interest in writing at the time. I had read a lot, but had actually no interest in writing. I started to write in 1963 and The Dainty Monsters came out in 1967.

How do you account for such a mature, sophisticated, and well-crafted book as The Dainty Monsters? Most writers go through a period of apprenticeship, which seems to be necessary in order to get rid of their bad poems. But you don't seem to have had to...