Home / Authors / Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood Quotes

Poet

Margaret Atwood is a renowned Canadian poet, novelist, playwright, and critic, born on November 18, 1939. Her works are known for their unique style and profound insights into social issues, with notable titles including 'The Handmaid's Tale' and 'Cat's Eye'.

Filter quotes by topic

All Ifs People Thinking Knows Writing Way Want Men Book Said

Famous Margaret Atwood Quotes

“The myth that everyone once read great literature is just a myth.”

Literature Myth Great Literature

Author:Margaret Atwood

“There would be no Sherlock Holmes if it were not for serial publication.”

Ifs Would Be Publication Holmes Serials

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Victorian literature was my subject at Harvard.”

Literature Subjects Harvard Victorian

Author:Margaret Atwood

“When I was 16, I started publishing all kinds of things in school magazines.”

Kind School All Kinds Magazines Publishing

Author:Margaret Atwood

“When things are really dismal, you can laugh, or you can cave in completely.”

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Writers and books are cheap dates, especially when you compare the cost of a book with a ticket to the opera - or an NHL game.”

Book Games Cost Compare Opera Tickets Nhl

Author:Margaret Atwood

“You hear doom and gloom about the Internet ruining young people's command of English - that's nonsense.”

People Young Internet Command Nonsense Doom Gloom Doom And Gloom

Author:Margaret Atwood

“You're never going to kill storytelling, because it's built into the human plan. We come with it.”

Humans Plans Built Storytelling Storyteller

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy - which many believe goes hand in hand with it - will be dead as well.”

Ifs Writing Believe Wells Hands Young Courses Reading Practice Democracy Reader Literacy Hand In Hand Reading And Writing

Author:Margaret Atwood

“I'm a strict, strict agnostic. It's very different from a casual, 'I don't know.' It's that you cannot present as knowledge something that is not knowledge. You can present it as faith, you can present it as belief, but you can't present it as fact.”

Knows Different Facts Belief Strict Agnostic Casual

Author:Margaret Atwood

“If you're waiting for the perfect moment, you'll never write a thing because it will never arrive. I have no routine. I have no foolproof anything. There's nothing foolproof.”

Ifs Writing Moments Waiting Perfect Routine Perfect Moments Foolproof

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Our generation in the west was lucky: we had readymade gateways. We had books, paper, teachers, schools and libraries. But many in the world lack these luxuries. How do you practice without such tryout venues?”

World Book School Practice Teacher Generations Lucky Paper West Library Luxury Our Generation Venues Gateways Tryouts

Author:Margaret Atwood

“A reader can never tell if it's a real thimble or an imaginary thimble, because by the time you're reading it, they're the same. It's a thimble. It's in the book.”

Ifs Book Real Reading Reader Imaginary

Author:Margaret Atwood

“All fiction is about people, unless it's about rabbits pretending to be people. It's all essentially characters in action, which means characters moving through time and changes taking place, and that's what we call 'the plot'.”

People Mean Character Action Moving Fiction Plot Pretending Rabbits Time And Change

Author:Margaret Atwood

“As soon as you have a language that has a past tense and a future tense you're going to say, 'Where did we come from, what happens next?' The ability to remember the past helps us plan the future.”

Helping Happens Past Remember Next Language Ability Plans Tense Remembering The Past

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Before the Civil War, Canada was at the top of the underground railroad. If you made it into Canada, you were safe unless someone came and hauled you back. That was also true during the Vietnam War for draft resisters.”

Ifs Made War Safe Made It Civil War Canada Vietnam Vietnam War Railroads Canada Day Happy Canada Day Underground Railroad

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Communications technology changes possibilities for communication, but that doesn't mean it changes the inherited structure of the brain. So you may think that you're addicted to online reading, but as soon as it isn't available anymore, your brain will pretty immediately adjust to other forms of reading. It's a habit like all habits.”

Thinking May Mean Form Reading Brain Technology Possibility Communication Habit Structure Available Online Communication Technology

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Debt is part of the human condition. Civilization is based on exchanges - on gifts, trades, loans - and the revenges and insults that come when they are not paid back.”

Humans Conditions Civilization Paid Trade Debt Revenge Insult Human Condition Loan

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Fiction is not necessarily about what you know, it's about how you feel. That is the truth about fiction, and the other truth is that all science is a tool, and we use our tools not to actualise what we know, but to implement how we feel.”

Knows Feels Use Fiction Truth Is Tools How You Feel

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Foreignness is all around. Only in the heart of the heart of the country, namely the heart of the United States, can you avoid such a thing. In the center of an empire, you can think of your experience as universal. Outside the empire or on the fringes of the empire, you cannot.”

Thinking Heart Country States United United States Universal Empires Fringe

Author:Margaret Atwood

“I began writing at the age of 5, but there was a dark period between the ages of 8 and 16 when I didn't write. I started again at 16. And have no idea why, but it was suddenly the only thing I wanted to do.”

Writing Ideas Age Wanted Dark Periods No Idea

Author:Margaret Atwood

“I didn't go to school for a full year until I was 12. In the summer I was a wild child in the woods, with no shoes, and in the fall it was back to the city, shoe shops and school.”

Years Children School Fall Cities Summer Shoes Woods Shops Wild Child

Author:Margaret Atwood

“I don't think of poetry as a 'rational' activity but as an aural one. My poems usually begin with words or phrases which appeal more because of their sound than their meaning, and the movement and phrasing of a poem are very important to me.”

Thinking Important Sound Movement Activity Rational Appeals Phrases

Book:Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood

Source: Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood

“I don't think the relationship between novels and realities are one to one. Of course novels play different roles. It's essentially just a long narrative form. What you use that long narrative form for can be very different.”

Thinking Long Different Play Use Reality Form Courses Roles Novel Narrative

Author:Margaret Atwood

“I got into trouble a while ago for saying that I thought the internet led to increased literacy - people scolded me about the shocking grammar to be found online - but I was talking about fundamentals: quite simply, you can't use the net unless you can read.”

People Use Found Talking Trouble Internet Fundamentals Online Shocking Literacy Grammar Scolded Simply You

Author:Margaret Atwood

“I grew up in the north woods of Canada. You had to know certain things about survival. Wilderness survival courses weren't very formalized when I was growing up, but I was taught certain things about what to do if I got lost in the woods.”

Ifs Knows Certain Courses Lost Growing Up Growing Taught Grew Grew Up Survival Woods Canada Wilderness Lost In The Woods

Book:Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood

Source: Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood

“I hate to tell you this, but you will never actually go to a galaxy far, far away and encounter Darth Vader. That's science fiction; it isn't going to happen.”

Happens Hate Fiction I Hate Science Fiction Encounters Far Away Galaxy Vader

Author:Margaret Atwood

“I have been known to buy e-versions of my books because I was in a hotel room and I needed one right away to look up something in it; very handy for that - you can have it just the next minute; you can press the button and just have it.”

Looks Has Beens Book Next Rooms Known Minutes Needed Presses Versions Look Up Hotel Buttons Handy Hotel Rooms

Author:Margaret Atwood

“I know that some books and some writers, you can pretty much draw a square around it and say, 'Nobody under 40,' or 'Nobody under 25.' With my books, it always has been, and continues to be, spread right across the board, and I think the operative term is 'reader.'”

Thinking Knows Has Beens Book Term Reader Draws Spread Boards Squares

Author:Margaret Atwood

“I spent much of my childhood in northern Quebec, and often there was no radio, no television - there wasn't a lot to entertain us. When it rained, I stayed inside reading, writing, drawing.”

Writing Reading Childhood Television Radio Drawing Quebec Reading Writing

Author:Margaret Atwood

“I think every age lives in a blend of technology so there's always older ones mixed in with newer ones, and when the new technology goes down, the immediate fallback position is either that technology just before that or one several technologies back.”

Thinking Age Technology Position New Technology Age Life

Author:Margaret Atwood

“I was born in the Ottawa General Hospital right after the Gray Cup Football Game in 1939. Six months later, I was backpacked into the Quebec bush. I grew up in and out of the bush, in and out of Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie and Toronto.”

Games Born Football Grew Months Six Grew Up Cups Hospitals Gray Six Months Toronto Football Game Marie Quebec Ottawa General Hospital

Book:Margaret Atwood: Conversations

Source: Margaret Atwood: Conversations

“I was once a graduate student in Victorian literature, and I believe as the Victorian novelists did, that a novel isn't simply a vehicle for private expression, but that it also exists for social examination. I firmly believe this.”

Believe Literature I Believe Social Novel Students Expression Novelists Graduates Vehicle Examination Victorian Graduate Students

Author:Margaret Atwood

“If I pick up a book with vampires on the cover, I want there to be vampires. If I pick up a book with spaceships on the cover, I want spaceships. If I see one with dragons, I want there to be dragons inside the book. Proper labeling. Ethical labeling.”

Ifs Want Book Picks Vampire Dragons Ethical Spaceships Labeling

Author:Margaret Atwood

“If it's all instruction, you get annoyed with it and bored, and you stop reading. If it's all entertainment, you read it quite quickly, your heart going pitty-pat, pitty-pat. But when you finish, that's it. You're not going to think about it much afterward, apart from the odd nightmare. You're not going to read that book again.”

Ifs Thinking Heart Book Reading Entertainment Bored Odd Nightmare Instruction Annoyed

Author:Margaret Atwood

“If one of the arguments against eating meat is to do with cruelty and animal intelligence, then lab meat avoids that. There's also the environmental argument for it.”

Ifs Animal Eating Argument Environmental Cruelty Meat Labs Eating Meat Animal Intelligence

Author:Margaret Atwood

“If social stability goes pear-shaped, you have a choice between anarchy and dictatorship. Most people will opt for more security, even if they have to give up some personal freedom.”

People Ifs Giving Choices Social Security Giving Up Anarchy Stability Dictatorship Personal Freedom Pears

Author:Margaret Atwood

“If you feel that there's the author and then the character, then the book is not working. People have a habit of identifying the author with the narrator, and you can't, obviously, be all of the narrators in all of your books, or else you'd be a very strange person indeed.”

People Ifs Feels Persons Book Character Strange Habit Identifying Narrators Strange Person

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Like many modern poets, I tend to conceal rhymes by placing them in the middle of lines, and to avoid immediate alliteration and assonance in favor of echoes placed later in the poems.”

Lines Modern Middle Poet Favors Echoes Rhyme Alliteration Assonance

Book:Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood

Source: Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood

“Our problem right now is that we're so specialized that if the lights go out, there are a huge number of people who are not going to know what to do. But within every dystopia there's a little utopia.”

People Ifs Knows Littles Problem Light Numbers Huge Right Now Utopia Dystopia Huge Numbers

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Please don't make the mistake of thinking that 'Oryx and Crake' is anti-science. Science is a way of knowing, and a tool. Like all ways of knowing and tools, it can be turned to bad uses. And it can be bought and sold, and it often is. But it is not in itself bad. Like electricity, it's neutral.”

Thinking Way Use Mistake Knowing Please Tools Electricity Often Is

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Storytelling is a very old human skill that gives us an evolutionary advantage. If you can tell young people how you kill an emu, acted out in song or dance, or that Uncle George was eaten by a croc over there, don't go there to swim, then those young people don't have to find out by trial and error.”

People Ifs Giving Humans Young Song Skills Advantage Errors Trials Storytelling Swim Uncles Trial And Error Crocs

Author:Margaret Atwood

“The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don't think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.”

Thinking I Can Problem Solutions Metaphor Solve Thread Crystals Formation Genesis Clusters

Book:Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood

Source: Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood

“The object is very clear in the fight against racism; you have reasons why you're opposed to it. But when you're writing a novel, you don't want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that.”

Want Writing Reason Life Is Fighting Novel Clear Objects Reader Racism Complicated Reason Why Voting Yes Or No Against Racism

Author:Margaret Atwood

“The society in 'The Handmaid's Tale' is a throwback to the early Puritans whom I studied extensively at Harvard under Perry Miller, to whom the book is dedicated.”

Book Tales Dedicated Harvard Puritan Handmaids Throwback

Author:Margaret Atwood

“There's a difference between describing and evoking something. You can describe something and be quite clinical about it. To evoke it, you call it up in the reader. That's what writers do when they're good.”

Differences Reader Describing Evoke Clinicals

Author:Margaret Atwood

“The central symbol for Canada-and this based on numerous instances of its occurrence in both English and French Canadian literature-is undoubtedly Survival, la Survivance.”

Literature Survival Instance Symbols Canada

Author:Margaret Atwood

“Vampires get the joy of flying around and living forever, werewolves get the joy of animal spirits. But zombies, they're not rich, or aristocratic, they shuffle around. They're a group phenomenon, they're not very fast, they're quite sickly. So what's the pleasure of being one?”

Joy Spirit Pleasure Animal Forever Rich Groups Flying Vampire Phenomenon Zombie Werewolf Shuffle Aristocratic Animal Spirits

Author:Margaret Atwood

“We have to rethink our whole energy approach, which is hard to do because we're so dependent on oil, not just for fuel but also plastic. If plastic vanished, there would be total chaos. We have to think quite carefully about using oil, and its derivatives, because it's not going to be around forever.”

Ifs Thinking Hard Whole Would Be Energy Forever Approach Chaos Oil Fuel Dependent Plastic Derivatives

Author:Margaret Atwood

“You can examine the whole 19th century from the point of view of who would have maxed out their credit cards. Emma Bovary would have maxed hers out. No question. Mr. Scrooge would not have. He would have snipped his up.”

Whole Views Century Credit Point Of View Cards 19th Century Credit Card Emma Scrooge

Author:Margaret Atwood

About the Author

Born: November 18, 1939
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 1233

Related Topics

Ifs People Thinking Knows Writing Way Want Men Book Said

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The Handmaid's TaleRelated source material

The Blind AssassinRelated source material

Oryx And CrakeRelated source material

The Blind Assassin: A NovelRelated source material

Cat's EyeRelated source material

The Handmaid’s TaleRelated source material

The Year Of The FloodRelated source material

Bluebeard's EggRelated source material

Old Babes in the Wood: StoriesRelated source material

The PenelopiadRelated source material

Similar Authors

Stephen KingBrowse related quotes
George SaundersBrowse related quotes
Neil GaimanBrowse related quotes
Jeanette WintersonBrowse related quotes
David LevithanBrowse related quotes
Paul AusterBrowse related quotes
Sandra CisnerosBrowse related quotes
Salman RushdieBrowse related quotes
Sarah DessenBrowse related quotes
Ursula K. Le GuinBrowse related quotes