1,705 Quotes by Margaret Atwood

What will Ofwarren give birth to? A baby, as we all hope? Or something else, an Unbaby, with a pinhead or a snout like a dog’s, or two bodies, or a hole in its heart or no arms, or webbed hands and feet? There’s no telling. They could tell once, with machines, but that is now outlawed. What would be the point of knowing, anyway? You can’t have them taken out; whatever it is must be carried to term.

Nothing is more difficult than to understand the dead, I’ve found; but nothing is more dangerous than to ignore them.

Our problem right now is that we’re so specialized that if the lights go out, there are a huge number of people who are not going to know what to do. But within every dystopia there’s a little utopia.

Better not to invent her in her absence. Better to wait until she’s actually here. Then he can make her up as she goes along.

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.

I’ve never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It’s probably because they have forgotten their own.

And she finds it difficult to believe – that a person would love her even when she isn’t trying. Trying to figure out what other people need, trying to be worthy.

Not so her eyes, which were the flat hostile blue of a midsummer sky in bright sunlight, a blue that shuts you out.

Our curiosity is supposed to have limits, though these have never been defined exactly.