Margaret Atwood quotes - page 3

A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together. (Margaret Atwood)
The fabric of democracy is always fragile everywhere because it depends on the will of citizens to protect it, and when they become scared, when it becomes dangerous for them to defend it, it can go very quickly. View quote
Margaret Atwood
Touch comes before sight, before speech. It is the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth. View quote
Margaret Atwood
Reality simply consists of different points of view. View quote
Margaret Atwood
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. View quote
Margaret Atwood
Knowing too much about other people puts you in their power, they have a claim on you, you are forced to understand their reasons for doing things and then you are weakened. View quote
Margaret Atwood
A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze. View quote
Margaret Atwood
Hatred would have been easier. With hatred, I would have known what to do. Hatred is clear, metallic, one-handed, unwavering; unlike love. View quote
Margaret Atwood
But people will do anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning. No use, that is. No plot. View quote
Margaret Atwood
I am not your justification for existence. View quote
Margaret Atwood
Forgiving men is so much easier than forgiving women. (Margaret Atwood)
If we were all on trial for our thoughts, we would all be hanged. View quote
Margaret Atwood
There were a lot of gods. Gods always come in handy, they justify almost anything. View quote
Margaret Atwood
I lie on the floor, washed by nothing and hanging on. I cry at night. I am afraid of hearing voices, or a voice. I have come to the edge, of the land. I could get pushed over. View quote
Margaret Atwood
All you have to do, I tell myself, is keep your mouth shut and look stupid. It shouldn't be that hard. View quote
Margaret Atwood
We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability? View quote
Margaret Atwood
Vanity is becoming a nuisance, I can see why women give it up, eventually. But I'm not ready for that yet. View quote
Margaret Atwood
Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations. View quote
Margaret Atwood
They spent the first three years of school getting you to pretend stuff and then the rest of it marking you down if you did the same thing. View quote
Margaret Atwood
Old lovers go the way of old photographs, bleaching out gradually as in a slow bath of acid: first the moles and pimples, then the shadings. Then the faces themselves, until nothing remains but the general outlines. View quote
Margaret Atwood
I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no light without shadow; or rather, no shadow unless there is also light. (Margaret Atwood)
Happy as a clam, is what my mother says for happy. I am happy as a clam: hard-shelled, firmly closed. View quote
Margaret Atwood
This is what I miss, Cordelia: not something that's gone, but something that will never happen. Two old women giggling over their tea. View quote
Margaret Atwood
Nature is to zoos as God is to churches. View quote
Margaret Atwood
To want is to have a weakness. View quote
Margaret Atwood