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Margaret Atwood Quotes - Page 2

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If we were all on trial for our thoughts, we would all be hanged.

If we were all on trial for our thoughts, we would all be hanged.

Margaret Atwood
Trials, Our Thoughts, Ifs
Margaret Atwood (2011). “Alias Grace: A Novel”, Anchor

Another belief of mine; that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.

Margaret Atwood
Inspirational, Growing Up, Age
Margaret Atwood (1988). “Cat's eye”, Doubleday, 1989

Reality simply consists of different points of view.

Margaret Atwood
Reality, Views, Different
Interview with Marilyn Berlin Snell, www.motherjones.com. July/August 1997.

The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love.

Margaret Atwood
Love, Valentines Day, Names
Margaret Atwood (2012). “Surfacing”, p.166, Simon and Schuster

Nature is to zoos as God is to churches.

Margaret Atwood
Nature, Zoos, Church
Margaret Atwood (2014). “The MaddAddam Trilogy Bundle: The Year of the Flood; Oryx & Crake; MaddAddam”, p.209, Anchor

You can only be jealous of someone who has something you think you ought to have yourself.

Margaret Atwood
Jealousy, Thinking, Being Jealous
FaceBook post by Margaret Atwood from Nov 12, 2016

Good writing takes place at intersections, at what you might call knots, at places where the society is snarled or knotted up.

Margaret Atwood
Writing, Might, Knots
FaceBook post by Margaret Atwood from Nov 08, 2011

Anybody who writes a book is an optimist. First of all, they think they're going to finish it. Second, they think somebody's going to publish it. Third, they think somebody's going to read it. Fourth, they think somebody's going to like it. How optimistic is that?

Margaret Atwood
Book, Writing, Optimistic

Everyone thinks writers must know more about the inside of the human head, but that's wrong. They know less, that's why they write. Trying to find out what everyone else takes for granted.

Margaret Atwood
Writing, Thinking, Trying
FaceBook post by Margaret Atwood from Jan 22, 2017

Powerlessness and silence go together.

Margaret Atwood
Silence, Together, Powerlessness
"Margaret Atwood on a voyage to the world's end" by Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. August 29, 2009.

Don't let the bastards grind you down.

Margaret Atwood
Graduation, Latin, Cheer Up
Margaret Atwood (1986). “The Handmaid's Tale”, p.187, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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

Margaret Atwood
Book, Character, Anxiety
Margaret Atwood (1990). “Margaret Atwood: Conversations”, Princeton, N.J. : Ontario Review Press

I've never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It's probably because they have forgotten their own.

Margaret Atwood
People, Joy, Understanding
Margaret Atwood (2012). “Dancing Girls”, p.123, Simon and Schuster

The trickle-down theory of economics has it that it's good for rich people to get even richer because some of their wealth will trickle own, through their no doubt lavish spending, upon those who stand below them on the economic ladder. Notice that the metaphor is not that of a gushing waterfall but of a leaking tap: even the most optimistic endorsers of this concept do not picture very much real flow, as their language reveals" pg. 102.

Margaret Atwood
Real, Optimistic, People

The facts of this world seen clearly are seen through tears.

Margaret Atwood
Tears, World, Facts
Margaret Atwood (2012). “Selected Poems II: 1976 - 1986”, p.83, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Potential has a shelf life.

Margaret Atwood
Shelves, Shelf Life
Margaret Atwood (1989). “Cat's Eye”, Bantam

When we're young, we like happy endings. When we're a little older, we think happy endings are unrealistic and so we prefer bad but credible endings. When we're older still, we realize happy endings aren't so bad after all.

Margaret Atwood
Thinking, Littles, Happy Endings

If a god showed up every time you put a quarter in the prayer slot it wouldn't be God, it would be a puppet that you could control by doing that...that would make the deity subservient to you. So it wouldn't be a deity would it?

Margaret Atwood
Prayer, Would Be, Puppets

If he wants to be an asshole, it's a free country. Millions before him have made the same life choice.

Margaret Atwood
Country, Choices, Want
FaceBook post by Margaret Atwood from Jul 27, 2016

Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy - which many believe goes hand in hand with it - will be dead as well.

Margaret Atwood
Reading, Believe, Writing
FaceBook post by Margaret Atwood from Dec 08, 2014

I think calling it climate change is rather limiting. I would rather call it the everything change.

Margaret Atwood
Thinking, Climate, Calling
Interview with Ed Finn, www.slate.com. February 6, 2015.

A word after a word after a word is power.

Margaret Atwood
Inspirational, Life, Reading
"Spelling". Poem by Margaret Atwood, www.poemhunter.com.

If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive.

Margaret Atwood
Alive, Annoying, Ifs

There were a lot of gods. Gods always come in handy, they justify almost anything.

Margaret Atwood
Handy, Justify
Margaret Atwood (2007). “The Blind Assassin: A Novel”, p.27, Anchor

I wanted to forget the past, but it refused to forget me; it waited for sleep, then cornered me.

Margaret Atwood
Sleep, Past, Forget
Margaret Atwood (2012). “Lady Oracle”, p.228, Simon and Schuster

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