1,705 Quotes by Margaret Atwood

Also I could hear Amanda’s voice: Why are you being so weak? Love’s never a fair trade. So Jimmy’s tired of you, so what, there’s guys all over the place like germs, and you can pick them like flowers and toss them away when they’re wilted. But you have to act like you’re having a spectacular time and every day’s a party.

The hands reaching inamong the leaves and spineswere once my mother's. I've passed them on. Decades ahead, you'll study your owntemporary hands, and you'll remember. Don't cry, this is what happens.

The past isn’t quaint while you’re in it. Only at a safe distance, later, when you can see it as décor, not as the shape your life’s been squeezed into.

What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question.

The truth is seldom welcome, especially at dinner.

She must have been at least fifty.The age he now is himself, Richard notes dejectedly. That's one thing Selena has escaped. He thinks of it as an escape.

In what ways, if any, does talent set you apart? Does it exempt you from the duties and responsibilities expected of others? Or does it load you up with even more duties and responsibilities, but of a different kind?

...and the evening was so beautiful, that it made a pain in my heart, as when you cannot tell wether you are happy or sad; and I thought that if I could have a wish, it would be that nothing would ever change, and we would stay that way forever.

Who cares, who cares. The perennial adolescent riposte. I cared, of course. I cared what people thought. I always did care. Unlike Laura, I have never had the courage of my convictions.