We thought we had such problems. How were we to know we were happy? Margaret Atwood More Quotes by Margaret Atwood More Quotes From Margaret Atwood We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. Margaret Atwood gymnasiums Is anything wrong, dear? the old joke went. No, why? You moved. Just don't move. Margaret Atwood old-jokesdearmoving Nature is to zoos as God is to churches. Margaret Atwood churchnaturezoos Make the verses flow together. If a following verse has nothing to do with the previous, you may lose our listener/reader. You want a smooth flow to hear or read, and it's easier to memorize. Margaret Atwood togetherwritingmay Never mind. Point being that you don't have to get too worked up about us, dear educated minds. You don't have to think of us aas real girls, real flesh and blood, real pain, real injustice. That might be too upsetting. Just discard the sordid part. Consider us pure symbol. We're no more real than money. Margaret Atwood paingirlreal When I was 16 I started publishing all kinds of things in school magazines. My main feedback came from my English teacher, Miss Bessie B. Billings, who said, 'I can't understand this at all, dear, so it must be good. Margaret Atwood encouragementteacherschool How furious she must be, now that she's been taken at her word. Margaret Atwood handmaids-talehandmaidstaken At moments like this I envy those who have found a safe haven in which to bestow their hearts; or perhaps I envy them for having a heart to bestow. I often feel that I myself am without one, and possess in its stead merely a heart shaped stone. Margaret Atwood safe-havenenvyheart You might 'write from the heart,' but you'd better polish with your brain. Margaret Atwood brainheartwriting There's something final about saying you were married once. It's like saying you were dead once. It shuts them up. Margaret Atwood marriedfinals No mother is ever, completely, a child's idea of what a mother should be, and I suppose it works the other way around as well. But despite everything, we didn't do too badly by one another, we did as well as most. Margaret Atwood motherchildrenideas Disease has always been a much bigger killer of human beings than wars. Margaret Atwood killersdiseasewar Well. Then we had the irises, rising beautiful and cool on their tall stalks, like blown glass, like pastel water momentarily frozen in a splash, light blue, light mauve, and the darker ones, velvet and purple, black cat's ears in the sun, indigo shadow, and the bleeding hearts, so female in shape it was a surprise they'd not long since been rooted out. There is something subversive about this garden of Serena's, a sense of buried things bursting upwards, wordlessly, into the light, as if to point, to say: Whatever is silenced will clamor to be heard, though silently. Margaret Atwood catheartbeautiful If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia. Margaret Atwood mental-illnesscanadaunited-states Screw poetry, it’s you I want, your taste, rain on you, mouth on your skin. Margaret Atwood skinsmouthsrain Our generation in the west was lucky: we had readymade gateways. We had books, paper, teachers, schools and libraries. But many in the world lack these luxuries. How do you practice without such tryout venues? Margaret Atwood teacherbookschool All I can hope for is a reconstruction: the way love feels is always only approximate. Margaret Atwood reconstructionfeelsway We understand more than we know. Margaret Atwood understandingknows I'm working on my own life story. I don't mean I'm putting it together; no, I'm taking it apart. Margaret Atwood storiestogethermean God is not the voice in the whirlwind, God is the whirlwind. Margaret Atwood whirlwindvoice
