She finds this objectivity of hers, this clarity, almost more depressing than she can bear, not because there is anything hideous or repellant about this man but because he has now returned to the ordinary level, the level of things she can see, in all their amazing and complex particularity, but cannot touch.
Margaret Atwood
Related The dedication she has and the will she has to play are great. She keeps us up constantly. She needs... ESTELLE LASHBROOK She was more of a take-it-to-the-hole kind of player in high school. In high school, she was the go-... GARY FIFIELD She saw how he was staring at it, the bright red hue beneath her bonnet. She could not bear to see t... CHARLOTTE FEATHERSTONE She showed potential from the start. It's great not only for me to see, but for the younger girls to... KATE HILLMAN Nobody is ever given more to shoulder than he or she can bear. NEIL GAIMAN Yes, unfortunately, she has a tendency to believe that anything that is stuffed is hers. She has a f... JULIE ODIL He can guess, but he won't ever know, not really. What it was like, what she was thinking, everythin... CELESTE NG And her. What would she do without him? She’s not special, not like BB and Ghostly, who... RAINJOY Melissa is a very versatile player. She has a great game sense and a great defensive presence on the... JENNIFER AVERILL [T]he more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it b... PAULO FREIRE Because her instinct has told her, or because she has been reliably informed, the faded virgin knows... ARNOLD BENNETT She is the first to get to this level and do very well at a high level of competition. She was the N... DAVE MICAHNIK Annie looks dreamy, but she always does because she can’t see farther than three feet away. Elizab... MAGGIE STIEFVATER We're trying to build stories that come from smaller things. There's one show where Chris gets into ... ALI LEROI There are things that happen to any young girl. But because she grows up, it doesn't mean she can't ... ARMANDO SIQUEIROS She has absolutely just taken this to a whole new level. She deserves a lot of credit. BETH MCCALL I try not to brag on certain people, but man, what can I say? She's been my leader this year. She wo... GAVIN MILLER This kid, in club, competed a triple full. She has room to grow. It's exciting to see. She's just hi... CARLOS FUENTES She now has the luxury to explore her next step, because she got this package. ANDREA KAY She has tried as hard and she can to get this difficult case right, and then she is confronted with ... CARL TOBIAS And yet, as she sits there with him on the window seat, with his strong arms around her, she knows t... JULIA HOBAN On a grassroots level we say that man can touch more than he can grasp. GABRIEL MARCEL Even though he was inside the house, I could still hear Vlad’s sardonic mutter of “Where’s a t... JEANIENE FROST We knew she'd be good, but we didn't know if she'd be ready to play at this level yet. She has prove... BRANDY CORBETT And she knows then that she was right about her brother, that it takes an unbelievable strength to f... JULIA HOBAN Breathe in deeply to bring your mind home to your body. Then look at, or think of, the person trigge... THICH NHAT HANH She is more worried than anything because it is not really the best place to be in the world right n... GEORGE MORGAN For her, the news that this disaster was coming their way was very frightening. We can all be certai... SUE KOUF She can eat more things. But she has to take care of things like spicy, fried food. OLEG VASILIEV The bee is more honored than other animals, not because she labors, but because she labors for other... SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM There has always been something enigmatic about Cassie. This is one of the things I like in her, and... TANA FRENCH The average girl would rather have beauty than brains because she knows the average man can see much... SOURCE UNKNOWN Galinda didn't see the verdant world through the glass of the carriage; she saw her own reflection i... GREGORY MAGUIRE She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a co... HARPER LEE A woman can do anything. She can be traditionally feminine and that's all right; she can work, she c... BARBARA WALTERS Give a human being power, and he or she will think that he or she can control the whole world! This ... PHILIP T. M. This was not a house burglary. The items were returned to their rightful owner and she gave police a... LARRY PECK We, as a community, are lucky to have her. She has individually notched up the level of care in Pens... DR. REX NORTHUP A man should not marry a woman unless and until he is confident to reach to the level of selfishness... ANUJ SOMANY She knows this is her life. She accepts it. It's almost her mission in life to touch others. MARILYN SMITH The majority enjoy a young girl as they enjoy a glass of champagne, at one effervescent moment-oh, y... SøREN KIERKEGAARD She had given him all she had - but what was it compared to the other gifts life held for him? She u... EDITH WHARTON There was this tendency to drift. And yet when she thought about it, what did she really want to d... EDWARD ABBEY What stood out more than anything was she worked as hard as she possibly could every possession, eve... BETH BURNS Something statuesque is approaching her. It radiates a field of dynamic tension that grows more inte... THOMAS LIGOTTI I hope something happens. I'm restless as the devil and have a horror of getting fat or falling in l... F. SCOTT FITZGERALD If she had touched me," he said very softly, "I would have been hers and not my own, not ever again.... PETER S. BEAGLE The thing about Tip is her temperament is perfect for golf. She gets upset but doesn't let it bother... ANDY HALLETT Everyone got a follower, how good or bad is all this shit, it's another topic… JUst leave it for l... DEYTH BANGER For me this is not surprising because when everyone asked her to become prime minister she refused. ... AK ANTONY It was awesome having her, especially because she's a true point guard. She (Taylor) can drive, she ... BAILEY HANSEN Katherine Harris would have Florida voters believe she's on the verge of being destitute because, sh... DAN MCLAUGHLIN If it's proven in a court of law she was wronged, she can sue for millions because this is defamatio... BILL RUSSELL He slid her a skeptical look. “What is that?” She almost laughed at the suspicion in his fa... Z. ROCKWARD The beauty myth sets it up this way: A high rating as an art object is the most valuable tribute a w... NAOMI WOLF The radical, committed to human liberation, does not become the prisoner of a 'circle of certainty' ... PAULO FREIRE This is why she hates Alabaster: not because he is more powerful, not even because he is crazy, but ... N.K. JEMISIN This is an incredible complex situation. It can only be helpful that there is this level of interest... DAVID REGAN I know it sounds like a lot of money. But in the context of their lifestyle, it's really not. Beside... BRUCE MCNALL She loved Japan because of the beauty, and she loved Italy because of the charm. She wanted to see e... DEBORAH TIBBITT For Lindsay it's tough, because she's not 100%. It's day to day, and how much can she go? She worked... MARKUS ROEDERS She can really do some things because she works hard every day. She also wanted the team to be succe... ANDY GIBBS When a man finds this kind of woman, he will go all out for her knowing that she will not be a letdo... JAACHYNMA N.E. AGU She (Gerry) has made the single most improvement. She will be the focus of our attack this year. In ... ERIC STEEGE Let's put it like this... Deeper Level is a place in which I can put in everything exploits and then... DEYTH BANGER Given the fact that she was found in South Carolina indicates she has contacts there, ... Once she g... BOB ANDERSON She knows Daddy better than I do. I think it's because she's felt since we were children that our Da... JAMES BALDWIN I can tell you, all the intelligence services in the world were running my name through their databa... VALERIE PLAME She can be wearing anything and look amazing because she never looks primped or contrived or self-co... PETER SOM Nobody went past her. She may not be the fastest defender, but she reads it extremely well. Her conf... MARKUS ROEDERS This should be her best spring season because she's come in shape this year. That's going to make a ... LIBBY OUELLETTE She's a tough kid -- probably the majority of kids wouldn't have been able to play with the level of... BRIAN MURRAY There is a thing called knowledge of the world, which people do not have until they are middle-aged.... T.H. WHITE It’s this or nothing at all. R.J. GROVES At this level of gymnastics, anything can happen because everybody is so good that it just depends o... EMILY PEACOCK She asked some hard questions about why something like this happens, ... She talked about the fear t... VERNON KEENAN Mark always told India that she is an amazing athlete and he is right. Not only is she athletic but ... KELLY ROWLAND Charlotte Church is our Woman of the Year simply because she is larger than life, ... She might not ... DYLAN JONES 'The Wizard of Oz' is my favourite. It explains what life on this planet is about. Although ... RUPAUL That's it really; it's all love, whichever way you look at it, it's all love. How much you can Get f... GEORGE HARRISON She's a good shooter, a good foul shooter, too. She has a nice touch, and she can hit the boards. We... HARRY DEFRANK But she was seventeen now and not actually dumb. She knew that you could love somebody more than any... JONATHAN FRANZEN I would have loved to see Paula have more success than she did, because she is the right kind of per... JON CAREY You know this girl. Her hair is neither long nor short nor light nor dark. She parts it precise... GABRIELLE ZEVIN One of my heroes has always been Barbie. She may not do anything, but she always looks amazing doing... PARIS HILTON All of us were in this for the same reason, just to make her feel amazing and boost her confidence b... HOPE SPRUNGER The more a person is united within himself or herself and inwardly simple, the more and higher thing... ABHIJIT NASKAR Please be SILENT and LISTEN. I am the SCHOOLMASTER and you are in the CLASSROOM. Just... PSEUDONYMOUS BOSCH Many a woman is in a relationship with or married to her man not because she loves him but only beca... MOKOKOMA MOKHONOANA Because of the womb being a central phenomenon in the feminine body, the whole psychology of woman d... RAJNEESH I can give her no greater power than she has already, said the woman; don't you see how strong that ... HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN It occurs to her that he is attempting to let her win, an act she considers highly unnecessary since... LUIS CAMARA SILVA Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see... ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Although he doesn't know it yet, she isn't his real life. But he is hers. This is painful... MARGARET ATWOOD Together my wife and I are building the kingdom of God, exercising dominion, beating back the weeds ... R.C. SPROUL JR. But now that she had achieved knighthood, and thought and acted as she wanted and decided, for one h... KATHY ACKER She was no longer theirs. She was his. And he was hers. And this w... MICHAEL GRANT Mo has always been the tough one on the team and she leads by example with her toughness, but this y... GAIL GOESTENKORS Why is it you trust my daughter so much when others almost universally revile her?" "I consider... BRANDON SANDERSON The tears were there, waiting to make their escape. But she wouldn’t let them. Not this time. She ... ELAINE WHITE
More Margaret Atwood
Heroes need monsters to establish their heroic credentials. You need something scary to overcome. MARGARET ATWOOD Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I'm a realist. MARGARET ATWOOD Science and fiction both begin with similar questions: What if? Why? How does it all work? But they ... MARGARET ATWOOD A divorce is like an amputation: you survive it, but there's less of you. MARGARET ATWOOD If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schiz... MARGARET ATWOOD The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many... MARGARET ATWOOD An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness. MARGARET ATWOOD If I waited for perfection... I would never write a word. MARGARET ATWOOD Sooner or later, I hate to break it to you, you're gonna die, so how do you fill in the space be... MARGARET ATWOOD I was once a graduate student in Victorian literature, and I believe as the Victorian novelists did,... MARGARET ATWOOD When things are really dismal, you can laugh, or you can cave in completely. MARGARET ATWOOD You're never going to kill storytelling, because it's built into the human plan. We come wit... MARGARET ATWOOD Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no yo... MARGARET ATWOOD Every utopia - let's just stick with the literary ones - faces the same problem: What do you do ... MARGARET ATWOOD Don't let the bastards grind you down. MARGARET ATWOOD When you can't tell the difference between your own pleasure and your pain then you're an addict. MARGARET ATWOOD The beginning of Canadian cultural nationalism was not 'Am I really that oppressed?' but ... MARGARET ATWOOD Once upon a time you could wander around one country, then the next and then maybe you'd go to Engla... MARGARET ATWOOD They've removed anything you can tie a rope to. MARGARET ATWOOD Their mothers had finally caught up to them and been proven right. There were consequences after all... MARGARET ATWOOD No one knows what cuases an outer landscape to become an inner one. MARGARET ATWOOD The Eskimos had 52 names for snow because it was important to them; there ought to be as many for ... MARGARET ATWOOD Why is it that night falls, instead of rising, like the dawn? Yet if you look east, at sunset, you c... MARGARET ATWOOD Happiness is a garden walled with glass: there's no way in or out. In Paradise there are no stories,... MARGARET ATWOOD Touch comes before sight, before speech. It is the first language and the last, and it always tells ... MARGARET ATWOOD Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results. MARGARET ATWOOD Longed for him. Got him. Shit. MARGARET ATWOOD If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew everything that was going to happen next—if you ... MARGARET ATWOOD But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind eve... MARGARET ATWOOD I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed an... MARGARET ATWOOD I wonder which is preferable, to walk around all your life swollen up with your own secrets until yo... MARGARET ATWOOD If i thought this would never happen again I would die. But this is wrong, nobody dies from lac... MARGARET ATWOOD Hatred would have been easier. With hatred, I would have known what to do. Hatred is clear, metallic... MARGARET ATWOOD That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even an... MARGARET ATWOOD There's an epigram tacked to my office bulletin board, pinched from a magazine -- "Wanting to meet a... MARGARET ATWOOD We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of pr... MARGARET ATWOOD But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it... MARGARET ATWOOD Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Wat... MARGARET ATWOOD Popular art is the dream of society; it does not examine itself. MARGARET ATWOOD The Eskimos had 52 names for snow because it was important to them; there ought to be as many for lo... MARGARET ATWOOD A word after a word after a word is power. MARGARET ATWOOD I've never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It's probably because the... MARGARET ATWOOD She even had a kind of special position among men: she was an exception, she fitted none of the cate... MARGARET ATWOOD Men are not to be told anything they might find too painful; the secret depths of human nature, the ... MARGARET ATWOOD The basic Female body comes with the following accessories: garter belt, panty-girdle, crinoline, ca... MARGARET ATWOOD Never pray for justice, because you might get some. MARGARET ATWOOD If I were going to convert to any religion I would probably choose Catholicism because it at least h... MARGARET ATWOOD I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one 'race' - the human race - and... MARGARET ATWOOD A divorce is like an amputation: you survive it, but there's less of you MARGARET ATWOOD Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. MARGARET ATWOOD War is what happens when language fails. MARGARET ATWOOD Miranda nods, because she knows that to be true: noble people don't do things for the money, they si... MARGARET ATWOOD Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them. MARGARET ATWOOD This is how the girl who couldn't speak and the man who couldn't see fell in love. MARGARET ATWOOD I'm a strict, strict agnostic. It's very different from a casual, 'I don't know.'... MARGARET ATWOOD Little girls are cute and small only to adults. To one another they are not cute. They are life-size... MARGARET ATWOOD Another belief of mine; that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. MARGARET ATWOOD A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. P... MARGARET ATWOOD I hate to tell you this, but you will never actually go to a galaxy far, far away and encounter Dart... MARGARET ATWOOD Religions in general have to rediscover their roots. In Hinduism and the Koran, animals are describe... MARGARET ATWOOD The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose. MARGARET ATWOOD In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. MARGARET ATWOOD I grew up with the biologists. I know how they think. MARGARET ATWOOD Before the Civil War, Canada was at the top of the underground railroad. If you made it into Canada,... MARGARET ATWOOD Sometimes there would be couples, arm in arm—laughing, happy, amorous. Victims of an enormous frau... MARGARET ATWOOD I've never bought into any sort of hard and fast, this-box/that-box characterization. People are... MARGARET ATWOOD Was this a betrayal, or was it an act of courage? Perhaps both. Neither one involves forethought: su... MARGARET ATWOOD The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is... MARGARET ATWOOD Time is compressed like the fist I close on my knee... I hold inside it the clues and solutions and ... MARGARET ATWOOD They spent the first three years of school getting you to pretend stuff and then the rest of it mark... MARGARET ATWOOD Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, ... MARGARET ATWOOD If you're put on a pedestal, you're supposed to behave yourself like a pedestal type of pers... MARGARET ATWOOD If you feel that there's the author and then the character, then the book is not working. People... MARGARET ATWOOD I don't think of poetry as a 'rational' activity but as an aural one. My poems usually b... MARGARET ATWOOD Every aspect of human technology has a dark side, including the bow and arrow. MARGARET ATWOOD Vampires get the joy of flying around and living forever, werewolves get the joy of animal spirits. ... MARGARET ATWOOD Some people mistakenly think nature is very nice and benevolent and never betrays. MARGARET ATWOOD You will always have partial points of view, and you'll always have the story behind the story t... MARGARET ATWOOD Canada was built on dead beavers. MARGARET ATWOOD How shrunk, how dwindled, in our times Creation's mighty seed - For Man has broke the Fell... MARGARET ATWOOD She imagines him imagining her. This is her salvation. In spirit she walks the city, traces its... MARGARET ATWOOD You can only be jealous of someone who has something you think you ought to have yourself. MARGARET ATWOOD Can I be blamed for wanting a real body, to put my arms around? Without it I too am disembodied. I c... MARGARET ATWOOD Gardening is not a rational act. MARGARET ATWOOD Second-hand American was spreading over him in patches, like mange or lichen. He was infested, garbl... MARGARET ATWOOD وقتی دردپایان می یابد،دیگر در یاد چه کسی می ماند؟ تنها �... MARGARET ATWOOD We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly. MARGARET ATWOOD If social stability goes pear-shaped, you have a choice between anarchy and dictatorship. Most peopl... MARGARET ATWOOD When you're young, you think everything you do is disposable. You move from now to now, crumpling ti... MARGARET ATWOOD We understand more than we know. MARGARET ATWOOD Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Don't let the bastards grind you down. MARGARET ATWOOD You can examine the whole 19th century from the point of view of who would have maxed out their cred... MARGARET ATWOOD You hear doom and gloom about the Internet ruining young people's command of English - that'... MARGARET ATWOOD If I pick up a book with spaceships on the cover, I want spaceships. If I see one with dragons, I wa... MARGARET ATWOOD Girl Without Hands Walking through the ruins on your way to work that do not lo... MARGARET ATWOOD '1984' is not a wonder tale. Not only could it happen, but it has happened, but under differ... MARGARET ATWOOD The thing about delirium is you think it's great, but it actually isn't. MARGARET ATWOOD We have to rethink our whole energy approach, which is hard to do because we're so dependent on ... MARGARET ATWOOD I was warped early by Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allan Poe. I was very fond of Franz Kafka. MARGARET ATWOOD A divorce is like an amputation; you survive, but there's less of you. MARGARET ATWOOD The truly fearless think of themselves as normal. MARGARET ATWOOD Or perhaps she's just softening me up: she's a Baptist, she'd like me to find Jesus, or vice versa, ... MARGARET ATWOOD Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise. MARGARET ATWOOD I don't want to see anyone. I lie in the bedroom with the curtains drawn and nothingness washing ove... MARGARET ATWOOD When we think of the past it's the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like ... MARGARET ATWOOD My brother and I were both good at science, and we were both good at English literature. Either one ... MARGARET ATWOOD The myth that everyone once read great literature is just a myth. MARGARET ATWOOD I was born in the Ottawa General Hospital right after the Gray Cup Football Game in 1939. Six months... MARGARET ATWOOD If you're waiting for the perfect moment, you'll never write a thing because it will never a... MARGARET ATWOOD Debt is part of the human condition. Civilization is based on exchanges - on gifts, trades, loans - ... MARGARET ATWOOD I particularly like Twitter, because it's short and can be very funny and informative. It's ... MARGARET ATWOOD I do have a life,' says Charis, blinking wet eyes. 'You have a rich inner life,' says Ton... MARGARET ATWOOD Night falls. Or has fallen. Why is it that night falls, instead of rising, like the dawn? MARGARET ATWOOD No mother is ever, completely, a child's idea of what a mother should be, and I suppose it works the... MARGARET ATWOOD We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of pr... MARGARET ATWOOD But despite everything, we didn't do badly by one another, we did as well as most. I wish she were h... MARGARET ATWOOD But people will do anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning. No use, that is. No ... MARGARET ATWOOD Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some. MARGARET ATWOOD Our problem right now is that we're so specialized that if the lights go out, there are a huge n... MARGARET ATWOOD There's always something to occupy the inquiring mind. MARGARET ATWOOD Social media is called social media for a reason. It lends itself to sharing rather than horn-tootin... MARGARET ATWOOD Love blurs your vision; but after it recedes, you can see more clearly than ever. It's like the tide... MARGARET ATWOOD Romance takes place in the middle distance. Romance is looking in at yourself through a window cloud... MARGARET ATWOOD Modesty is invisibility...Never forget it. To be seen—to be seen —is to be...penetrated. W... MARGARET ATWOOD In theory I can do almost anything; certainly I have been told how. In practice I do as little as po... MARGARET ATWOOD Male fantasies, male fantasies, is everything run by male fantasies? Up on a pedestal or down on you... MARGARET ATWOOD Sauve qui peut. To survive we’d all turn thief and rascal, or so says the fox, MARGARET ATWOOD Science fiction is filled with Martians and space travel to other planets, and things like that. MARGARET ATWOOD But how can you have a sense of wonder if you’re prepared for everything? MARGARET ATWOOD Our generation in the west was lucky: we had readymade gateways. We had books, paper, teachers, scho... MARGARET ATWOOD A home filled with nothing but yourself. It's heavy, that lightness. It's crushing, that emptiness. MARGARET ATWOOD The problem with meditating is I generally go to sleep, and that's because I'm doing it wron... MARGARET ATWOOD Fatigue is here, in my body, in my legs and eyes. That is what gets you in the end. Faith is only a ... MARGARET ATWOOD Many believed what they were told: that the welfare of the entire kingdom depended on their selfless... MARGARET ATWOOD She did understand, or at least she understood that she was supposed to understand. She understood, ... MARGARET ATWOOD When I am writing fiction, I believe I am much better organized, more methodical - one has to be whe... MARGARET ATWOOD We do like to have such good opinions of our own motives when we're about to do something harmful, t... MARGARET ATWOOD Love blurs your vision; but after it recedes, you can see more clearly than ever. It's like the tide... MARGARET ATWOOD I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at once, without anyone knowing... MARGARET ATWOOD Night falls. Or has fallen. Why is it that night falls, instead of rising, like the dawn? Yet if you... MARGARET ATWOOD What fabrications they are, mothers. Scarecrows, wax dolls for us to stick pins into, crude diagrams... MARGARET ATWOOD There is something powerful in the whispering of obscenities, about those in power. There's somethin... MARGARET ATWOOD I believe that everyone else my age is an adult whereas I am merely in disguise. MARGARET ATWOOD How could I have been so ignorant? she thinks. So stupid, so unseeing, so given over to carelessness... MARGARET ATWOOD The society in 'The Handmaid's Tale' is a throwback to the early Puritans whom I studied... MARGARET ATWOOD You could tell 'The Handmaid's Tale' from a male point of view. People have mistakenly f... MARGARET ATWOOD Glenn used to say the reason you can't really imagine yourself being dead was that as soon as you sa... MARGARET ATWOOD You want the truth, of course. You want me to put two and two together. But two and two doesn’t ne... MARGARET ATWOOD But in the end, back she comes. There's no use resisting. She goes to him for amnesia, for oblivion.... MARGARET ATWOOD When you're unhinged, things make their way out of you that should be kept inside, and other things ... MARGARET ATWOOD Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert... MARGARET ATWOOD It wasn't so easy though, ending the war. A war is a huge fire; the ashes from it drift far, and set... MARGARET ATWOOD The young habitually mistake lust for love, they're infested with idealism of all kinds. MARGARET ATWOOD I'm not senile," I snapped. "If I burn the house down it will be on purpose. MARGARET ATWOOD She knows herself to be at the mercy of events, and she knows by now that events have no mercy. MARGARET ATWOOD Why does the mind do such things? Turn on us, rend us, dig the claws in. If you get hungry enough, t... MARGARET ATWOOD Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert... MARGARET ATWOOD Home is where the heart is, I thought now, gathering myself together in Betty's Luncheonette. I had ... MARGARET ATWOOD Should is a futile word. It's about what didn't happen. It belongs in a parallel universe. It... MARGARET ATWOOD What is it the I'll want from you? Not love: that would be too much to ask. Not forgiveness, which i... MARGARET ATWOOD There were a lot of gods. Gods always come in handy, they justify almost anything. MARGARET ATWOOD Women have curious ways of hurting someone else. They hurt themselves instead; or else they do it so... MARGARET ATWOOD Farewells can be shattering, but returns are surely worse. Solid flesh can never live up to the brig... MARGARET ATWOOD The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by ... MARGARET ATWOOD There would be no Sherlock Holmes if it were not for serial publication. MARGARET ATWOOD The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn't one. MARGARET ATWOOD Anybody who writes a book is an optimist. First of all, they think they're going to finish it. Secon... MARGARET ATWOOD Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it. MARGARET ATWOOD We thought we had such problems. How were we to know we were happy? MARGARET ATWOOD The moment of betrayal is the worst, the moment when you know beyond any doubt that you've been betr... MARGARET ATWOOD Put yourself in a different room, that's what the mind is for. MARGARET ATWOOD The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose MARGARET ATWOOD I think of this as a democratizing device. MARGARET ATWOOD I'm curious. If someone says 'Don't open that door', I'm right there! MARGARET ATWOOD The main thing is to keep yourself awake [on writing] MARGARET ATWOOD For years I wanted to be older, and now I am. MARGARET ATWOOD He's very in depth, on the dark side. He's interested in structure and how things work. After readin... MARGARET ATWOOD The Orange prize has been pivotal in the careers of many women writers - it's given them that extra ... MARGARET ATWOOD Just think of it as a very, very long pen. MARGARET ATWOOD Because I am a mother, I am capable of being shocked; as I never was when I was not one MARGARET ATWOOD This above all, to refuse to be a victim. MARGARET ATWOOD We thought we were running away from the grownups, and now we are the grownups. MARGARET ATWOOD A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason. MARGARET ATWOOD Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who'll shout at you or someone who believes women are hum... MARGARET ATWOOD They all disowned their parents long ago, the way you are supposed to MARGARET ATWOOD You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer. MARGARET ATWOOD Foreignness is all around. Only in the heart of the heart of the country, namely the heart of the Un... MARGARET ATWOOD Any death is stupid from the viewpoint of whoever is undergoing it, Adam One used to say, because no... MARGARET ATWOOD Also I could hear Amanda’s voice: Why are you being so weak? Love’s never a fair trade. So Jimmy... MARGARET ATWOOD I lie on the floor, washed by nothing and hanging on. I cry at night. I am afraid of hearing voices,... MARGARET ATWOOD Life is warped. I'm just in sync. MARGARET ATWOOD I thought everyone would be familiar with this figure: if I'd studied a thing in school I assumed it... MARGARET ATWOOD We were revisionists; what we revised was ourselves. MARGARET ATWOOD My parents are like younger, urchinlike brothers and sisters whose faces are dirty and who blurt out... MARGARET ATWOOD Now we come to forgiveness. Don't worry about forgiving me right now. There are more important thing... MARGARET ATWOOD Our heaven is their hell, said God. I like a balanced universe. MARGARET ATWOOD Human tool-makers always make tools that will help us get what we want, and what we want hasn't chan... MARGARET ATWOOD She doesn't think it's a good idea to know the future, because you can hardly ever change it, so why... MARGARET ATWOOD The possibility of injury or death was a strong attraction: as the online world became more and more... MARGARET ATWOOD My self is a thing that I must now compose...as one composes a speech. What I must present is a 'mad... MARGARET ATWOOD