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Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood Quotes

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Famous Margaret Atwood Quotes

“What else can I do? Once you've gone this far you aren't fit for anything else. Something happens to your mind. You're overqualified, overspecialized, and everybody knows it. Nobody in any other game would be crazy enough to hire me. I wouldn't even make a good ditch-digger, I'd start tearing apart the sewer-system, trying to pick-axe and unearth all those chthonic symbols - pipes, valves, cloacal conduits... No, no. I'll have to be a slave in the paper-mines for all time.”

KnowsTryingMindEnoughHappensWould BeGamesGoneCrazyMinesFitPaperPicksSlaveAll TimeSymbolsPipeBeing CrazyBe A SlaveSewersValveTearing ApartOverqualified
Book:The Edible Woman
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“He has to find more and better ways of occupying his time. His time, what a bankrupt idea, as if he's been given a box of time belonging to him alone, stuffed to the brim with hours and minutes that he can spend like money. Trouble is, the box has holes in it and the time is running out, no matter what he does with it.”

IfsWayDoeIdeasMatterRunningGivenHoursTroubleMinutesNo Matter WhatBoxesHolesBelongingBetter WaysTime Is Running OutTime Running Out
Book:Oryx And Crake
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“Once in a while, Jimmy would make up a word but he never once got caught out. ... He should have been pleased by his success with these verbal fabrications, but instead he was depressed by it. The memos telling him he'd done a good job meant nothing to him; all they proved was that no one was capable of appreciating how clever he had been. He came to understand why serial killers sent helpful clues to the police.”

ShouldHas BeensDoneJobsCapableAppreciateShould HavePoliceCaughtCleverHelpfulKillersClueGood JobShould Have BeenJimmySerialsSerial KillerFabricationMemos
Author:Margaret Atwood
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“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”

IfsWantFeelsChildrenDoeEndsHandsRememberWaterHalfWallFlowStonesPatiencePatientObstaclesMy ChildrenPlungeRemember YouRemembers YouCaressDrippingSolidityPatience And WaitingFlowing WaterDripping Water
Author:Margaret Atwood
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“Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert our existence, like dogs peeing on fire hydrants. We put on display our framed photographs, our parchment diplomas, our silver-plated cups; we monogram our linen, we carve our names on trees, we scrawl them on washroom walls. It's all the same impulse. What do we hope from it? Applause, envy, respect? Or simply attention, of any kind we can get? At the very least we want a witness. We can't stand the idea of our own voices falling silent finally, like a radio running down.”

WantKindStillsIdeasRunningFallNamesWishVoiceExistenceAttentionFireAliveTreeDogWallSilentPhotographRadioEnvyCupsWitnessImpulseSilverDisplayApplauseFramedDiplomaLinenMonograms
Book:The Blind Assassin: A Novel
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“I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off.”

IfsNeedsBelieveI CanRealStoriesLeftChancePicksReal Life
Book:The Handmaid's Tale
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“Soon it will be daybreak. Soon the day will break. I can't stop it from breaking in the same way it always does, and then from lying there broken; always the same day, which comes around again like clockwork. It begins with the day before the day before, and then the day before, and then it's the day itself. A Saturday. The breaking day. The day the butcher comes.”

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Book:Alias Grace: A Novel
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