1,705 Quotes by Margaret Atwood

With the young writers now it’s F and C all day long, which he, personally, finds boring.

Writers are much better behaved nowadays, for a couple of reasons. Once upon a time nobody was thinking of a career, unless you lived in New York, so there wasn’t as much pressure to present a respectable exterior. And secondly, there was no social media. So if you were found face down on the floor – people did do that quite a bit; usually men, but not always – or fell through plate glass windows or got into scrapes, it became a rumour, and rumours are hard to pin down.

By telling you anything at all I'm at least believing in you, I believe you're there, I believe you into being.

There's nothing like a shovel full of dirt to encourage literacy.

Bytelling you anything at all I’m at least believing in you, I believe you’re there, I believe youinto being. Because I’m telling you this story I will your existence. I tell, therefore you are.

Back at home they drew the curtains and read, with disapproval, with relish, with avidity and glee - even the ones who'd never thought of opening a novel before. There's nothing like a shovelful of dirt to encourage literacy.

I did not know how to paint or even what to paint, but I knew I had to begin.

Would I laugh?""Matter of fact, you would," says Zeb. "Heart like shale. What you need is a good fracking.

She was not stunned, the way I was. In some strange way she was gleeful, as if this was what she had been expecting for some time and now she'd been proven right.