50+ Margaret Atwood Famous Quotes

Margaret Eleanor Atwood  (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. 

Atwood has won numerous awards and honors for her writing, including two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Governor General's Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, Princess of Asturias Awards, and the National Book Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Margaret Atwood Quotes

But Why Did She Do It?" 

I asked. "Did She Want To Die?

No One Wants To Die," Said Becka. 

But Some People Don't Want To Live In Any 

Of The Ways That Are Allowed.

The Mills Of The Gods Grind Slowly,

I Said, "But They Grind Exceeding Small.

I Am A Great Proponent Of Better.

In The Absence Of Best.

Which Is How We Live Now.

What Good Is It To Throw 

Yourself In Front Of 

A Steamroller Out Of Moral Principles 

And Then Be Crushed Flat Like 

A Sock Emptied Of Its Foot? 

Better To Fade Into The Crowd, 

The Piously Praising, Unctuous, 

Hate Mongering Crowd. 

Better To Hurl Rocks 

Then To Chances Of Staying Alive.

Or Better For Your

Have Them Hurled At You.

Had I Ever Been In Love? 

I Didn't Think So. 

My Experience With The Men In 

My Family Had Not Encouraged Trust. 

But The Body Has Its Twitches, 

Which It Can Be Humiliating As 

Well As Rewarding To Obey. 

No Lasting Harm Was Done To Me, 

Some Pleasure Was Both Given And Received, 

And None Of These Individuals Took 

Their Swift Dismissal From My Life 

As A Personal Affront. 

Why Expect More?

You're Getting To Be A Big Girl, Agnes.

Then He Put His Hand On My Small 

But Growing Breast... 

I Froze, In Shock. 

So It Was All True Then, 

About Men And Their Rampaging, 

Fiery Urges, And Merely By Sitting [Here]... 

I Was The Cause. 

I Was Horribly Embarrassed-what Was 

I Supposed To Say? I Didn't Know, 

So I Simply Pretended It Wasn't Happening.

The Artist Doesn't Necessarily Communicate. 

The Artist Evokes ... 

[It] Actually Doesn't Matter What I Feel. 

What Matters Is How The Art Makes You Feel."

Margaret Atwood Famous Quotes

Still, I Wanted To Believe; 

Indeed I Longed To; And, 

At The End, 

How Much Of Belief Comes From Longing?

Love Blurs Your Vision; 

But After It Recedes, 

You Can See More Clearly Than Ever.

It's Like The Tide Going Out, 

Revealing Whatever's Been Thrown 

Away And Sunk: Broken Bottles, 

Old Gloves, Rusting Pop Cans, 

Nibbled Fishbodies, Bones.

This Is The Kind Of Thing You See If 

You Sit In The Darkness With Open Eyes, 

Not Knowing The Future.

One Person Alone Is Not A Full Person: 

We Exist In Relation To Others.

We Were The People Who Were 

Not In The Papers. 

We Lived In The Blank White 

Spaces At The Edges Of Print. 

It Gave Us More Freedom. 

We Lived In The Gaps Between The Stories.

In The End, 

We'll All Become Stories!

A Rat In A Maze Is Free To Go Anywhere, 

As Long As It Stays Inside The Maze.

I Laugh At My Public Image, 

Otherwise, I'd Jump Off A Bridge.

Margaret Atwood's Best Quotes

A Word After 

A Word After A Word Is Power.

Above All, 

To Refuse To Be A Victim.

There's Something About Smart Women 

What People Find Frightening. 

In Fact, I'm Not Really That Smart, 

But They Think That If 

You Write Books That You Must Be.

War Is What Happens 

When Language Fails.

Little Girls Are Cute And 

Small Only To Adults. 

To One Another They Are Not Cute. 

They Are Life-sized.

Margaret Atwood Poem

Touch Comes Before Sight,

Before Speech.

It Is The First Language

And The Last,

And It Always Tells The Truth.

Maybe She Just Wants To 

Lead Her Own Life," I Said.

"Her Own Life!" Said Winifred. 

"Just Think What She'd Do With It!"

The Eskimos Had 52 Names For Snow 

Because It Was Important To Them; 

There Ought To Be As 99 Many For Love.

In The Spring, 

At The End Of The Day, 

You Should Smell Like Dirt.

This Is The Solstice, 

The Still Point Of The Sun, 

It's Cusp And Midnight, 

The Year's Threshold And Unlocking, 

Where The Past Lets Go Of And 

Becomes The Future; 

The Place Of Caught Breath.

I Would Like To Be The Air 

That Inhabits You For A Moment Only. 

I Would Like To Be That Unnoticed & 

That Necessary.

Best Quotes of Margaret Atwood

Another Belief Of Mine: 

What Everyone Else 

My Age Is An Adult, 

Whereas I Am Merely In Disguise.

I've Never Understood Why 

People Consider Youth 

A Time Of Freedom And Joy. 

It's Probably Because 

They Have Forgotten Their Own.

If The National Mental Illness Of 

The United States Is Megalomania, 

That Of Canada Is Paranoid Schizophrenia.

You will Learn That There Are More 

Words Than You Can Ever Learn.

Ignoring Isn't The Same As Ignorance, 

You Have To Work At It.

You May Not Be Able To Alter Reality, 

But You Can Alter 

Your Attitude Towards It, 

And This, Paradoxically, 

Alters Reality. Try And See.

Marriage Is Not A House Or Even A Tent

It Is Before That, And Colder:

The Edge Of The Forest, The Edge. 

Of The Desert The Unpainted Stairs. 

At The Back Where We Squat. Outside, Eating Popcorn

The Edge Of The Receding Glacier 

Where Painfully And With Wonder At Having. 

This Far Survived Even

We Are Learning To Make Fire

Margaret Atwood's Best Quotes Ever

Men Are Afraid Women Will Laugh At Them. 

Women Are Afraid Men Will Kill Them.

Myths Can't Be Translated As 

They Did In Their Ancient Soil. 

We Can Only Find Our Own Meaning 

In Our Own Time.

A Voice Is A Human Gift; 

It Should Be Cherished And Used, 

To Utter Fully Human Speech As Possible. 

Powerlessness And Silence Go Together.

You're Never Going To Kill Storytelling 

Because It's Built Into The Human Plan. 

We Come With It.

You Can't Help What You Feel, 

But You Can Help How You Behave

If I Waited For Perfection, 

I Would Never Write A Word.

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 Quotes For Woman

I Read For Pleasure And 

That Is The Moment I Learn The Most.

The World That We Think 

We See Is Only Our Best Guess.

What Am I Living For And 

What Am I Dying For Are The Same Question?

A Truth Should Exist, 

It Should Not Be Used Like This. 

If I Love You, 

Is That A Fact Or A Weapon?

Speculative Fiction Encompasses That 

Which We Could Actually Do. 

Sci-fi Is That Which 

We're Probably Not Going To See.

It Won't Be The Bad Feminists Like Me. 

We Are Acceptable Neither To Right 

Nor To Left. In Times Of Extremes, 

Extremists Win.

Likability Is A Factor 

When You're Choosing A Roommate, 

But It's Not Necessarily 

A Factor When You're Creating 

A Living Character.