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
“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
No male writer is likely to be asked to sit on a panel addressing itself to the special problems of a male… — 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 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
Writers and books are cheap dates, especially when you compare the cost of a book with a ticket to the opera -… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“If writing novels - and reading them - have any redeeming social value, it's probably that they force you to imagine what… — 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
“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 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
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
Some of our earliest writing, in cuneiform, was about who owes what. — 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
Write down the thoughts and even more, write down a specific line. If you don't, it'll fly away forever. — 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
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
The one good thing to be said about announcing yourself as a writer in the colonial Canadian fifties is that nobody told… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Whatever the scientists may come up with, writers and artists will continue to portray altered mental states, simply because few aspects of… — 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
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
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
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
“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
