When I am writing fiction, I believe I am much better organized, more methodical - one has to be when writing a… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
My brother and I were both teenage writers, and he was, I have to say, better than I was, but he went… — 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
A non-event ... is better to write about than an event, because with a non-event you can make up the meaning yourself,… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
I know that some books and some writers, you can pretty much draw a square around it and say, 'Nobody under 40,'… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
The short answer to 'Why do you write' is - I suppose I write for some of the same reasons I read:… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
It's rather useless to write a gripping narrative with nothing in it but climate change because novels are always about people even… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
It's a feature of our age that if you write a work of fiction, everyone assumes that the people and events in… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“They told us to depend on memory, because nothing written down could be relied on. The Spirit travels from mouth to mouth,… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“In times of extremes, extremists win. Their ideology becomes a religion, anyone who doesn't puppet their views is seen as an apostate,… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
It's a critical fallacy of our times ... that a writer should 'grow,' 'change,' or 'develop.' This fallacy causes us to expect… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
While he writes, I feel as if he is drawing me; or not drawing me, drawing on me - drawing on my… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Every ending is arbitrary, because the end is where you write The end. A period, a dot of punctuation, a point of… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
In high school, in 1956, at the age of sixteen, we were not taught "creative writing." We were taught literature and grammar.… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
When people in my generation started to write, we did not actually have much of a movie industry, much of a theater… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
For me the experience of writing is really an experience of losing control… I think it's very much like dreaming or like… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Teaching other people to write is not something I can do. The only kind of advice I can give them will be… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Everyone thinks writers must know more about the inside of the human head, but that's wrong. They know less, that's why they… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
It's probably a form of childish curiosity that keeps me going as a fiction writer. I ... want to open everybody's bureau… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“Possibly, then, writing has to do with darkness, and a desire or perhaps a compulsion to enter it, and, with luck, to… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
The reader cannot see into your heart. He will know only what you tell him. Make the blind see your words. Make… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
If you're a woman writer, sometime, somewhere, you will be asked: Do you think of yourself as a writer first, or as… — 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
