he might die for her, but living for her would be quite different. — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Anaesthesia, that's one technique: if it hurts, invent a different pain. — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
I myself have 12 hats, and each one represents a different personality. Why just be yourself? — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
'1984' is not a wonder tale. Not only could it happen, but it has happened, but under different names. — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
and each of his voices left his body in a different colored soul and floated up towards the sun still singing. — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Science and fiction both begin with similar questions: What if? Why? How does it all work? But they focus on different areas… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Poetry isn't written from the idea down. It's written from the phrase, line and stanza up, which is different from what your… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Reading is one of the most individual things that happens. So every reader is going to read a piece in a slightly… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Imagine a famine. Now imagine a piece of bread. Both of these things are real but you happen to be in the… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Reading ... changes you. You aren't the same person after you've read a particular book as you were before, and you will… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
I don't think the relationship between novels and realities are one to one. Of course novels play different roles. It's essentially just… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Things might have been different if she hadn't been able to drift; if she'd had to concentrate on her next meal, instead… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
I'm a strict, strict agnostic. It's very different from a casual, 'I don't know.' It's that you cannot present as knowledge something… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
I have never had any problems with editors who wanted me to change my methods or point of view. I pay a… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
When I was young I believed that "nonfiction" meant "true." But you read a history written in, say, 1920 and a history… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
When I am lonely for boys it’s their bodies I miss. I study their hands lifting the cigarettes in the darkness of… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Canadians and Americans may look alike, but the contents of their heads are quite different. Americans experience themselves, individually, as small toads… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
I thought everyone would be familiar with this figure: if I'd studied a thing in school I assumed it was general knowledge.… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
I wish this story were different. I wish it were more civilized. I wish it showed me in a better light, if… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
One of the reasons [William] Shakespeare is so endlessly fascinating is that you can look at that figure from about 10 different… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Books are frozen voices, in the same way that musical scores are frozen music. The score is a way of transmitting the… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
As an artist your first loyalty is to your art. Unless this is the case, you're going to be a second-rate artist.… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“I'm fine," said Pilar, "for the moment. And the moment is the only time we can be fine in.” — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
And yet it disturbs me to learn I have hurt someone unintentionally. I want all my hurts to be intentional. — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“Mary: Some call this "Eve's curse," but I think that is stupid because the real curse of Eve was having to put up with… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“The birds were singing around me, but I reflected that the very birds were strangers to me, for I did not even know their… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“Strange how we decorate pain. These ribbons, for instance, and the small hard teardrops of blood. Who are they for? Do we think the… — margaret atwood Copy Share Image
I wanted to forget the past, but it refused to forget me; it waited for sleep, then cornered me. — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“Back at home they drew the curtains and read, with disapproval, with relish, with avidity and glee - even the ones who'd never thought… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
All fiction is about people, unless it's about rabbits pretending to be people. It's all essentially characters in action, which means characters moving through… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“Simon walks back to the house alone. The night is clear and warm, with a moon, almost full, enclosed in a nimbus of mist;… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“There is indeed something delightful about being able to combine obedience and disobedience in the same act.” — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“Every time the women appear, Snowman is astonished all over again. They're every known colour from the deepest black to whitest white, they're various… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image