Margaret Atwood Quotes - Page 9

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• While he writes, I feel as if he is drawing me; or not drawing me, drawing on me - drawing on my skin - not with the pencil he is using, but with an old-fashioned goose pen, and not with the quill end but with the feather end. As if hundreds of butterflies have settled all over my face, and are softly opening and closing their wings.

  Margaret Atwood

  Writing, Butterfly, Wings

  Margaret Atwood (2011). “Alias Grace: A Novel”, p.69, Anchor

  10 Copy quote

• Richard liked to say he picked things up for a song, which was odd, because he never sang. He never even whistled. He was not a musical person.

  Margaret Atwood

  Music, Song, Odd

  Margaret Atwood (2000). “The Blind Assassin”, Random House Large Print Publishing

  7 Copy quote

• Vanity is becoming a nuisance, I can see why women give it up, eventually. But I'm not ready for that yet.

  Margaret Atwood

  Women, Vanity, Giving

  Margaret Atwood (2011). “Cat's Eye”, p.19, Anchor

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• Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized. Then, later, they spring.

  Margaret Atwood

  Spring, Shadow, Sideways

  Margaret Atwood (2007). “The Blind Assassin: A Novel”, p.190, Anchor

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• The newspaper journalists like to believe the worst; they can sell more papers that way, as one of them told me himself; for even upstanding and respectable people dearly love to read ill of others.

  Margaret Atwood

  Believe, People, Paper

  Margaret Atwood (1997). “Alias Grace”

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• Write down the thoughts and even more, write down a specific line. If you don't, it'll fly away forever.

  Margaret Atwood

  Writing, Forever, Lines

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• All fathers are invisible in daytime; daytime is ruled by mothers and fathers come out at night. Darkness brings home fathers, with their real, unspeakable power. There is more to fathers than meets the eye.

  Margaret Atwood

  Daughter, Mother, Father

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• It's a critical fallacy of our times ... that a writer should 'grow,' 'change,' or 'develop.' This fallacy causes us to expect from children or radishes: 'grow,' or there's something wrong with you. But writers are not radishes. If you look at what most writers actually do, it resembles a theme with variations more than it does the popular notion of growth.

  Margaret Atwood

  Children, Growth, Doe

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• The reader cannot see into your heart. He will know only what you tell him. Make the blind see your words. Make the hard-hearted feel. Make the deaf hear.

  Margaret Atwood

  Writing, Heart, Blind

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• Now that I am dead, I know everything.

  Margaret Atwood

  Knows

  Margaret Atwood (2014). “The Penelopiad”, p.20, Faber & Faber

  4 Copy quote

• The moment of betrayal is the worst, the moment when you know beyond any doubt that you've been betrayed: that some other human being has wished you that much evil

  Margaret Atwood

  Betrayal, Evil, Doubt

  Margaret Atwood (1986). “The Handmaid's Tale”, p.193, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  6 Copy quote

• Why can't I believe? she asked the darkness. Behind her eyelids she saw an animal. It was golden colour, with gentle green eyes and canine teeth, and curly wool instead of fur. It opened its mouth, but it did not speak. Instead, it yawned.It gazed at her. She gazed at it. "You are the effect of a carefully calibrated blend of plant toxins," she told it.Then she fell asleep.

  Margaret Atwood

  Believe, Eye, Animal

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• To live in prison is to live without mirrors. To live without mirrors is to live without the self.

  Margaret Atwood

  Mirrors, Self, Prison

  Margaret Atwood (1987). “Selected Poems II: Poems Selected & New 1976-1986”, p.17, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  13 Copy quote

• Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress.

  Margaret Atwood

  Patience, Hands, Water

  Margaret Atwood (2003). “The Penelopiad”, p.43, Canongate Books

  30 Copy quote

• There is something reassuring about the toilets. Bodily functions at least remain democratic. Everybody shits.

  Margaret Atwood

  Toilets, Reassuring, Bodily Functions

  "The Handmaid's Tale". Book by Margaret Atwood, 1985.

  4 Copy quote

• The animals have no need for speech, why talk when you are a word.

  Margaret Atwood

  Animal, Needs, Speech

  Margaret Atwood (2012). “Surfacing”, p.281, Simon and Schuster

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• Make the verses flow together. If a following verse has nothing to do with the previous, you may lose our listener/reader. You want a smooth flow to hear or read, and it's easier to memorize.

  Margaret Atwood

  Writing, Together, May

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• You might 'write from the heart,' but you'd better polish with your brain.

  Margaret Atwood

  Writing, Heart, Brain

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• I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no light without shadow; or rather, no shadow unless there is also light.

  Margaret Atwood

  Believe, Light, Shadow

  Margaret Atwood (1986). “The Handmaid's Tale”, p.105, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• We shouldn't be saying 'Save the planet'; we should be saying: 'Save viable conditions in which people can live.' That's what we're dealing with here.

  Margaret Atwood

  People, Should, Planets

  "Margaret Atwood interview: 'Go three days without water and you don't have any human rights. Why? Because you're dead'" by Robert McCrum, www.theguardian.com. November 27, 2010.

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• She who pays the undertaker calls the tune.

  Margaret Atwood

  Tunes, Pay, Undertaker

  Margaret Atwood (2007). “The Blind Assassin: A Novel”, p.46, Anchor

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• Religions in general have to rediscover their roots. In Hinduism and the Koran, animals are described as equals. If you walk into a cathedral and look at the decorations of early Christianity, there are vines, animals, creatures and birds thriving all over the stonework.

  Margaret Atwood

  Animal, Roots, Bird

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• Being edited is like falling face down into a threshing machine.

  Margaret Atwood

  Fall, Machines, Faces

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• Repeat reading for me shares a few things with hot-water bottles and thumbsucking: comfort, familiarity, the recurrence of the expected.

  Margaret Atwood

  Reading, Water Bottles, Comfort

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• Nevertheless, blood is thicker than water, as anyone knows who has tasted both.

  Margaret Atwood

  Blood, Water, Nevertheless

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