All observations of life are harsh, because life is. I lament that fact, but I cannot change it. Margaret Atwood More Quotes by Margaret Atwood More Quotes From Margaret Atwood So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it's the hardest to do anything with. That's about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what. Margaret Atwood plotfavorsfun Heroes need monsters to establish their heroic credentials. You need something scary to overcome. Margaret Atwood scaryheroovercoming Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert our existence, like dogs peeing on fire hydrants. Margaret Atwood firedogwish Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized. Then, later, they spring. Margaret Atwood sidewaysshadowspring Why does the mind do such things? Turn on us, rend us, dig the claws in. If you get hungry enough, they say, you start eating your own heart. Maybe it's much the same. Margaret Atwood mindheartlife Our heaven is their hell, said God. I like a balanced universe. Margaret Atwood hellbalanceheaven But some people can't tell where it hurts. They can't calm down. They can't ever stop howling. Margaret Atwood calmhurtpeople [My favorite word is] and. It is so hopeful. Margaret Atwood your-favoritefavorite-wordshopeful I am certain that a Sewing Machine would relieve as much human suffering as a hundred Lunatic Asylums, and possibly a good deal more. Margaret Atwood lunatic-asylumsmachinessuffering People cry at weddings for the same reason they cry at happy endings: because they so desperately want to believe in something they know is not credible. Margaret Atwood wantbelievepeople We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability? Margaret Atwood handmaids-talehandmaidstalent For an instant she felt them, their identities, almost their substance, pass over her head like a wave. At some time she would be — or no, already she was like that too; she was one of them, her body the same, identical, merged with that other flesh that choked the air in the flowered room with its sweet organic scent; she felt suffocated by this thick sargasso-sea of femininity. Margaret Atwood airseasweet All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel. ...Think about it. There's escaping from the wolves, fighting the wolves, capturing the wolves, taming the wolves. Being thrown to the wolves, or throwing others to the wolves so the wolves will eat them instead of you. Running with the wolf pack. Turning into a wolf. Best of all, turning into the head wolf. No other decent stories exist. Margaret Atwood fightingrunningthinking You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer, an almost physical nerve, the kind you need to walk a log across a river. Margaret Atwood nervesriversneeds Writing poetry is a state of free float. Margaret Atwood statespoetrywriting What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question. Margaret Atwood dying The object is very clear in the fight against racism; you have reasons why you're opposed to it. But when you're writing a novel, you don't want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that. Margaret Atwood fightingracismwriting He doesn't know which is worse, a past he can't regain or a present that will destroy him if he looks at it too clearly. Then there's the future. Sheer vertigo. Margaret Atwood vertigolookspast Things musicals taught me: All your problems will go away if you sing about it. Margaret Atwood taughtgoing-awaywriting If you disagree with your government, that's political. If you disagree with your government that is approaching theocracy, then you're evil. Margaret Atwood politicalgovernmentevil
![[My favorite word is] and. It is so hopeful. by Margaret Atwood](https://whatsmyquote.com/images/quote-medium-quote-2cf583a1ad7554f6236dbe1566c996e4.jpg)
