Books Quotes by Margaret Atwood

Literature is not only a mirror; it is a map, a geography of the mind.

— Margaret Atwood

for me the novel is a social vehicle, it reflects society.

— Margaret Atwood

Once you publish a book, it is out of your control. You cannot dictate how people read it.

— Margaret Atwood

I was kidnapped by literature at a young age and never wanted to be ransomed.

— Margaret Atwood

Every novel is-at the beginning-the same opening of a door onto a completely unknown space.

— Margaret Atwood

I learned to read very early so I could read the comics, which I then started to draw.

— Margaret Atwood

I'll make you mine, lovers said in old books. They never said, I'll make you me.

— Margaret Atwood

Victorian literature was my subject at Harvard.

— 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…

— Margaret Atwood

“So, the book is not 'anti-religion.' It is against the use of religion as a front for tyranny; which is a different…

— Margaret Atwood

“Books and characters in books, pictures and elements in pictures—they all have families and ancestors, just like people.”

— Margaret Atwood

I am rather saddened at the end of a book. I think most writers find this. It's like a friend departing on…

— Margaret Atwood

“I thought, men who changed their names were likely to be con-men, criminals, undercover agents or magicians, whereas women who changed their…

— Margaret Atwood

“Nor did I make any distinctions between great literature and any other kind. I just liked reading.”

— Margaret Atwood

“I’d been reading modern French novels, and William Faulkner as well. I knew what love was supposed to be: obsession, with undertones…

— Margaret Atwood

Reading is one of the most individual things that happens. So every reader is going to read a piece in a slightly…

— Margaret Atwood

“all around the walls there are bookcases. They're filled with books. Books and books and books, right out in plain view, no…

— Margaret Atwood

I meet a lot of readers who first encountered my work in school. And I can only assume there is another group…

— Margaret Atwood

“gazing down at the black water remembering all the stories of women who had thrown themselves into it. They'd done it for…

— Margaret Atwood

We all know that a book is not really a person. It isn’t a human being. But if you are a lover…

— Margaret Atwood

If you want to be a writer, you should go into the largest library you can find and stand there contemplating the…

— Margaret Atwood

Make the verses flow together. If a following verse has nothing to do with the previous, you may lose our listener/reader. You…

— Margaret Atwood

When you're writing a novel, you don't want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question.…

— Margaret Atwood

“Back at home they drew the curtains and read, with disapproval, with relish, with avidity and glee - even the ones who'd…

— Margaret Atwood

“What did they want from it? Lechery, smut, confirmation of their worst suspicions. But perhaps some of them wanted, despite themselves, to…

— Margaret Atwood

The future of narrative? Built in, part of the human template. Not going away. The future of the codex book, with pages…

— Margaret Atwood

You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book,…

— Margaret Atwood

What a lost person needs is a map of the territory, with his own position marked on it so he can see…

— Margaret Atwood

There are novels that end well, but in between there are human beings acting like human beings. And human beings are not…

— Margaret Atwood

“Why do authors wish to pretend they don’t exist? It’s a way of skinning out, of avoiding truth and consequences. They’d like…

— Margaret Atwood

I never have [suffered writer’s block], although I’ve had books that didn’t work out. I had to stop writing them. I just…

— Margaret Atwood

Books are frozen voices, in the same way that musical scores are frozen music. The score is a way of transmitting the…

— Margaret Atwood

“Rosalind Porter: As a writer, how important do you feel it is to engage with the digital revolution? Margaret Atwood: I don’t…

— Margaret Atwood

“I reached the privy and emptied the slop pail, and so forth. And so forth, Grace? asks Dr.Jordan. I look at him.…

— Margaret Atwood

The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose.

— Margaret Atwood

Show me a character totally without anxieties and I will show you a boring book.

— Margaret Atwood

“It was as if they could read each other’s minds. No, not minds: each other’s mindlessness.”

— Margaret Atwood

I think the book you always like best is the one you're about to write.

— Margaret Atwood

Publishing a book is like stuffing a note into a bottle and hurling it into the sea.

— Margaret Atwood

I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most.

— Margaret Atwood