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Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood Quotes

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Famous Margaret Atwood Quotes

“And sometimes it happened, for a time. That kind of love comes and goes and is hard to remember afterwards, like pain. You would look at the man one day and you would think, I loved you, and the tense would be past, and you would be filled with a sense of wonder, because it was such an amazing and precarious and dumb thing to have done; and you would know too why your friends have been evasive about it, at the time.”

ThinkingKnowsMenLoveLooksKindHas BeensSometimesHardDoneWould BePainPastRememberWonderHappenedHe ManOne DayFilledDumbTenseComes And GoesTime LoveKinds Of LoveI Loved YouPrecariousSense Of WonderHandmaidsDumb ThingsHandmaids Tale
Book:The Handmaid's Tale
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“I think of bad news as a huge bird, with the wings of a crow and the face of my Grade Four school teacher, sparse bun, rancid teeth, wrinkly frown, pursed mouth and all, sailing around the world under cover of darkness pleased to be the bearer of ill tidings, carrying a basket of rotten eggs, and knowing- as the sun comes up- exactly where to drop them. On me, for one.”

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Book:Moral Disorder and Other Stories
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“To live in prison is to live without mirrors. To live without mirrors is to live without the self. She is living selflessly, she finds a hole in the stone wall and on the other side of the wall, a voice. The voice comes through darkness and has no face. This voice becomes her mirror.”

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Book:Selected Poems II: Poems Selected & New 1976-1986
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“They are hypocrites, they think the Church is a cage to keep God in, so he will stay locked up there and not go wandering about the earth during the week, poking his nose into their business, and looking in the depths and darkness and doubleness of their hearts, and their lack of true charity; and they believed they need only be bothered about him on Sundays when they have their best clothes on and their faces straight, and their hands washed and their gloves on, and their stories all prepared.”

ThinkingLoveNeedsHeartStoriesHandsAgeEarthFacesChurchDarknessWeekClothesPreparedCharityDepthWanderNosesSundayLockedCagesHypocriteBotheredGlovesLocked Up
Book:Alias Grace: A Novel
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“Walking was not fast enough, so we ran. Running was not fast enough, so we galloped. Galloping was not fast enough, so we sailed. Sailing was not fast enough, so we rolled merrily along on long metal tracks. Long metal tracks were not fast enough, so we drove. Driving was not fast enough, so we flew. Flying isn't fast enough for us. We want to get there faster. Get where? Wherever we are not. But a human soul can only go as fast as a man can walk, they used to say. In that case, where are all the souls? Left behind.”

MenWantHumansLongSoulEnoughRunningUsedLeftWalksBehindsCasesWalkingTrackDrivingFlyingFasterRanMetalsSailingLeft BehindHuman SoulFlewGalloping
Book:The Tent
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“I look up at the ceiling, tracing the foliage of the wreath. Today it makes me think of a hat, the large-brimmed hats women used to wear at some period during the old days: hats like enormous halos, festooned with fruit and flowers, and the feathers of exotic birds; hats like an idea of paradise, floating just above the head, a thought solidified.”

ThinkingLooksIdeasTodayUsedFlowerPeriodsBirdFruitEnormousParadiseLook UpHatsFloatingFeathersCeilingsOld DaysExoticHalosTracingWreathsFoliage
Book:The Handmaid's Tale
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“You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You've been backstage. You've seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be someone with whom you have a ­romantic relationship, unless you want to break up.”

WantGivingShouldWritingFirstsLooksTwoBookReadingAsksBreakPagesInnocentHatsAnticipationPublishingDeliciousRabbitsWriting AdviceNew BooksRomantic Relationship
Author:Margaret Atwood
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“I did not know that 'poetess' was an insult, and that I myself would some day be called one. I did not know that to be told I had transcended my gender would be considered a compliment. I didn't know — yet — that black was compulsory. All of that was in the future. When I was sixteen, it was simple. Poetry existed; therefore it could be written; and nobody had told me — yet — the many, many reasons why it could not be written by me.”

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Author:Margaret Atwood
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“But I keep going on with this sad and hungry and sordid, this limping and mutilated story, because after all I want you to hear it, as I will hear yours too if I ever get the chance, if I meet you or if you escape, in the future or in heaven or in prison or underground, some other place. What they have in common is that they're not here. By telling you anything at all I'm at least believing in you, I believe you're there, I believe you into being. Because I'm telling you this story I will your existence. I tell, therefore you are.”

IfsWantBelieveStoriesI BelieveHeavenChanceCommonExistencePrisonHungryKeep GoingI Want YouLimping
Author:Margaret Atwood
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“Falling in love, although it resulted in altered body chemistry and was therefore real, was a hormonally induced delusional state, according to him. In addition it was humiliating, because it put you at a disadvantage, it gave the love object too much power. As for sex per se, it lacked both challenge and novelty, and was on the whole a deeply imperfect solution to the problem of intergenerational genetic transfer.”

RealStatesWholeProblemBodyFallSexChallengesToo MuchObjectsSolutionsFalling In LoveChemistryImperfectNoveltyAlteredTransfersDisadvantagesHumiliatingDelusionalToo Much PowerBody Chemistry
Book:Oryx And Crake
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