Human understanding is fallible, and we see through a glass, darkly. Any religion is a shadow of God. But the shadows of God are not God. Margaret Atwood More Quotes by Margaret Atwood More Quotes From Margaret Atwood Eating is our earliest metaphor, preceding our consciousness of gender difference, race, nationality, and language. We eat before we talk. Margaret Atwood differences language race I became a poet at the age of sixteen. I did not intend to do it. It was not my fault. Margaret Atwood sixteen faults age I define science fiction as fiction in which things happen that are not possible today - that depend, for instance, on advanced space travel, time travel, the discovery of green monsters on other planets or galaxies, or that contain various technologies we have not yet developed. Margaret Atwood technology space discovery Gardening is not a rational act. What matters is the immersion of the hands in the earth, that ancient ceremony of which the Pope kissingthe tarmac is merely a pallid vestigial remnant. Margaret Atwood gardening what-matters hands Powerlessness and silence go together. Margaret Atwood powerlessness silence together We are silent, considering shortfalls. There's not much time left, for us to become what we once intended. Jon had potential, but it's not a word that can be used comfortably any more. Potential has a shelf-life. Margaret Atwood shelves silent used Either I'm alive or I'm dying, she said to Daniel. Please don't feel you can't tell me. Which is it? Margaret Atwood real truth life The one good thing to be said about announcing yourself as a writer in the colonial Canadian fifties is that nobody told me I couldn't do it because I was a girl. They simply found the entire proposition ridiculous. Writers were dead and English, or else extremely elderly and American; they were not sixteen years old and Canadian. Margaret Atwood elderly girl years Popular art is the dream of society; it does not examine itself. Margaret Atwood society dream art Publishing a book is like stuffing a note into a bottle and hurling it into the sea. Margaret Atwood bottles sea book Love was like a steamroller. There was no avoiding it; it went over you and you came out flat. Margaret Atwood avoiding broken-heart over-you Love is the pursuit of shadows. Margaret Atwood broken-heart shadow love-is Plato said that poets should be excluded from the ideal republic because they are such liars. I am a poet, and I affirm that this is true. About no subject are poets tempted to lie so much as about their own lives; I know one of them who has floated at least five versions of his autobiography, none of them true. I of course - being also a novelist - am a much more truthful person than that. But since poets lie, how can you believe me? Margaret Atwood plato liars lying Literature is not only a mirror; it is a map, a geography of the mind. Margaret Atwood mirrors literature mind No one knows what cuases an outer landscape to become an inner one. Margaret Atwood landscape knows Starlet sex scandal. Giant squid involved. Margaret Atwood squids giants sex To live in prison is to live without mirrors. To live without mirrors is to live without the self. She is living selflessly, she finds a hole in the stone wall and on the other side of the wall, a voice. The voice comes through darkness and has no face. This voice becomes her mirror. Margaret Atwood wall mirrors self They are hypocrites, they think the Church is a cage to keep God in, so he will stay locked up there and not go wandering about the earth during the week, poking his nose into their business, and looking in the depths and darkness and doubleness of their hearts, and their lack of true charity; and they believed they need only be bothered about him on Sundays when they have their best clothes on and their faces straight, and their hands washed and their gloves on, and their stories all prepared. Margaret Atwood hypocrite heart love Although from you I far must roam, do not be broken hearted. We two, who in the souls are one, are never truly parted. Margaret Atwood broken soul two Walking was not fast enough, so we ran. Running was not fast enough, so we galloped. Galloping was not fast enough, so we sailed. Sailing was not fast enough, so we rolled merrily along on long metal tracks. Long metal tracks were not fast enough, so we drove. Driving was not fast enough, so we flew. Flying isn't fast enough for us. We want to get there faster. Get where? Wherever we are not. But a human soul can only go as fast as a man can walk, they used to say. In that case, where are all the souls? Left behind. Margaret Atwood running men long
