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Margaret Atwood Quotes

born 1939 Canada

Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born 18 November 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, and literary critic.

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Also known as: Atwood, Margaret, Nolite te bastardes carborundorum

Random Margaret Atwood quote

89 quotes

Sanity is a valuable possession; I hoard it the way people once hoarded money. I save it, so I will have enough, when the time comes.

The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Nobody said when.

The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)

He's just a contact of hers, which is not the same as a friend. While she was in the hospital she decided that most of her friends were really just contacts.

Bodily Harm (1981)

You must cultivate poverty of spirit. Blessed are the meek. She didn’t go on to say anything about inheriting the earth.

The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)

I'm working on my own life story. I don't mean I'm putting it together; no, I'm taking it apart.

The Tent (2006)

You might even provide a Heaven for them. We need You for that. Hell we can make for ourselves.

The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)

Our heaven is their hell, said God. I like a balanced universe.

Do not let the bastards grind you down.

The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)

"Why do men feel threatened by women?"

He had that faint sick look in his eyes, as if he wanted to give her something, charity for instance.

Bodily Harm (1981)

Nature is to zoos as God is to churches.

Oryx and Crake (2003)

There is so much silence between the words,
you say. You say, The sensed absence
of God and the sensed presence
amount to much the same thing,
only in reverse.

Morning in the Burned House (1995)

“What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question.”

The Year of the Flood (2009)

When women let their hair down, it means either sexiness or craziness or death, the three by Victorian times having become virtually synonymous.

Ophelia Has a Lot to Answer For (1997)

All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel.

The Blind Assassin (2000)

Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who'll shout at you or someone who believes women are human beings? To me it's the latter, so I sign up.

To live in prison is to live without mirrors. To live
without mirrors is to live without the self.

Selected Poems 1976-1986 (1987)

You couldn’t leave words lying around where our enemies might find them.

The Year of the Flood (2009)

Adam named the living animals, MaddAddam names the dead ones.

Oryx and Crake (2003)

Without the light, no chance; without the dark, no dance.

The Year of the Flood (2009)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Margaret Atwood (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.