“Bless you. Be careful. Anyone intending to meddle with words needs such blessing, such warning.” — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer, an almost physical nerve, the kind you need to walk a… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
You might 'write from the heart,' but you'd better polish with your brain. — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“A writer's age at the time of a work's composition is never irrelevant.” — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Things musicals taught me: All your problems will go away if you sing about it. — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Writing... is an act of faith: I believe it's also an act of hope, the hope that things can get better than… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
I think the book you always like best is the one you're about to write. — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Perhaps I write for no one. Perhaps for the same person children are writing for when they scrawl their names in the… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
It had helped to keep her sane, that writing. Then, when time had begun again and real people had entered it, she'd… — 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
There's a difference between describing and evoking something. You can describe something and be quite clinical about it. To evoke it, you… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Anybody who writes a book is an optimist. First of all, they think they're going to finish it. Second, they think somebody's… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“I keep on going with this sad and hungry and sordid, this limping and mutilated story, because after all I want you… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
I wish you good writing and good luck. Even if you've already done the good writing, you'll still need the good luck.… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
I began writing at the age of 5, but there was a dark period between the ages of 8 and 16 when… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Writing is alone, but I don't think it's lonely. Ask any writer if they feel lonely when they're writing their book, and… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
After a year or two of keeping my head down and trying to pass myself off as a normal person, I made… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
You always think, 'Oh, if only I had a little chalet in the mountains! How great that would be and I'd do… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“I must admit it's a surprise to find myself still here, still talking to you. I prefer to think of it as… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“the only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
I no longer feel I'll be dead by thirty; now it's sixty. I suppose these deadlines we set for ourselves are really… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Writers are much better behaved nowadays, for a couple of reasons. Once upon a time nobody was thinking of a career, unless… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel. All of them? Sure, he says. Think… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a grip on reality. This latter means: there's no free lunch.… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“Is that what writing amounts to? The voice your ghost would have, if it had a voice?” — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Writing is very improvisational. It's like trying to fix a broken sewing machine with safety pins and rubber bands. A lot of… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“The choices that bedevil the writer bedevil the translator ten times over.” — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Reading and writing are connected. I learned to read very early so I could read the comics, which I then started to… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“She had an idea, but it was the wrong idea. It was hardly even an idea, just a white idea balloon with… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“All writers must go from now to once upon a time; all must take care not to be captured and held immobile… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
If you're waiting for the perfect moment, you'll never write a thing because it will never arrive. I have no routine. I… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
I tried for the longest time to find out what deconstructionism was. Nobody was able to explain it to me clearly. The… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but essentially you’re… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
It is my contention that the process of reading is part of the process of writing, the necessary completion without which writing… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
The object is very clear in the fight against racism; you have reasons why you're opposed to it. But when you're writing… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
My family was big on sharing. I guess it was just the way I was brought up. Or maybe, I read those… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason. Think of it as… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“Writing is not a job description. A great deal of it is luck. Don't do it if you are not a gambler… — 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
