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Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood Quotes

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Famous Margaret Atwood Quotes

“In high school, in 1956, at the age of sixteen, we were not taught "creative writing." We were taught literature and grammar. So no one ever told me I couldn't write both prose and poetry, and I started out writing all the things I still write: poetry, prose fiction - which took me longer to get published - and non-fiction prose.”

WritingStillsAgeSchoolLiteratureFictionCreativeTaughtHigh SchoolProseGrammarCreative WritingNon FictionSixteenProse And Poetry
Author:Margaret Atwood
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“The world is being run by people my age, men my age, with falling-out hair and health worries, and it frightens me. When the leaders were older than me I could believe in their wisdom, I could believe they had transcended rage and malice and the need to be loved. Now I know better. I look at the faces in newspapers, in magazines, and wonder: what greeds, what furies drive them on?”

PeopleKnowsMenWorldNeedsBelieveLooksRunningAgeFacesFallLeaderWonderWorryHairGreedRageNewspapersMagazinesFuryMalice
Book:Cat's Eye
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“You're sad because you're sad. It's psychic. It's the age. It's chemical. Go see a shrink or take a pill, or hug your sadness like an eyeless doll you need to sleep. Well, all children are sad but some get over it. Count your blessings. Better than that, buy a hat. Buy a coat or a pet. Take up dancing to forget.”

NeedsWellsChildrenAgeSleepForgetSadnessBlessingDancingPetHatsOver ItChemicalsHugCoatsGet OverPsychicsPillsShrinksDollsCount Your BlessingsSleep Well
Book:Morning in the Burned House
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“I have always known that there were spellbinding evil parts for women. For one thing, I was taken at an early age to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Never mind the Protestant work ethic of the dwarfs. Never mind the tedious housework-is-virtuous motif. Never mind the fact that Snow White is a vampire -- anyone who lies in a glass coffin without decaying and then comes to life again must be. The truth is that I was paralysed by the scene in which the evil queen drinks the magic potion and changes her shape. What power, what untold possibilities!”

MindFactsAgeLyingEvilWhiteKnownTakenMagicOne ThingPossibilityDrinkTruth IsSceneShapesEthicsSevenGlassesSnowVampireQueensVirtuousWork EthicTediousProtestantsCoffinsHouseworkDwarfsSnow WhiteMotifsProtestant Work Ethic
Book:Curious Pursuits: Occasional Writing
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“Toast was a pointless invention from the Dark Ages. Toast was an implement of torture that caused all those subjected to it to regurgitate in verbal form the sins and crimes of their past lives. Toast was a ritual item devoured by fetishists in the belief that it would enhance their kinetic and sexual powers. Toast cannot be explained by any rational means. Toast is me. I am toast.”

MeanAgePastFormBeliefDarkSinCrimeInventionRationalTortureRitualItemsPointlessDark AgesToastsPast Life
Author:Margaret Atwood
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“The Three of them were beautiful, in the way all girls of that age are beautiful. It can't be helped, that sort of beauty, nor can it be conserved; it's a freshness, a plumpness of the cells, that's unearned and temporary, and that nothing can replicate. None of them was satisfied with it, however; already they were making attempts to alter themselves into some impossible, imaginary mould, plucking and pencilling away at their faces. I didn't blame them, having done the same once myself.”

WayDoneAgeBeautifulFacesGirlThreeImpossibleBlameSatisfiedCellsTemporaryImaginaryFreshnessMouldReplicate
Author:Margaret Atwood
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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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