You say, The sensed absence of God and the sensed presence amount to much the same thing, only in reverse. 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 plot favors fun Heroes need monsters to establish their heroic credentials. You need something scary to overcome. Margaret Atwood scary hero overcoming 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 fire dog wish 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 sideways shadow spring 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 mind heart life Our heaven is their hell, said God. I like a balanced universe. Margaret Atwood hell balance heaven But some people can't tell where it hurts. They can't calm down. They can't ever stop howling. Margaret Atwood calm hurt people [My favorite word is] and. It is so hopeful. Margaret Atwood your-favorite favorite-words hopeful 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-asylums machines suffering 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 want believe people We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability? Margaret Atwood handmaids-tale handmaids talent 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 air sea sweet 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 fighting running thinking 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 nerves rivers needs Writing poetry is a state of free float. Margaret Atwood states poetry writing 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 fighting racism writing 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 vertigo looks past Things musicals taught me: All your problems will go away if you sing about it. Margaret Atwood taught going-away writing 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 political government evil
![[My favorite word is] and. It is so hopeful. by Margaret Atwood](https://whatsmyquote.com/images/quote-medium-quote-2cf583a1ad7554f6236dbe1566c996e4.jpg)
