Margaret Atwood Quotes

“A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.”

“Better never means better for everyone. It always means worse, for some.”

“But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.”

“Don't let the b*stards grind you down.”

“I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no light without shadow; or rather, no shadow unless there is also light.”

“Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.”

“It's impossible to say a thing exactly the way it was, because of what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out.

There are too many parts, sides, crosscurrents, nuances; too many gestures, which could mean this or that, too many shapes which can never be fully described, too many flavors, in the air or on the tongue, half-colors, too many.”

“Knowing was a temptation. What you don't know won't tempt you.”

“Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you'd be boiled to death before you knew it.”

“People will do anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning. No use, that is. No plot.”

“The moment of betrayal is the worst, the moment when you know beyond any doubt that you've been betrayed: that some other human being has wished you that much evil.”

“There is more than one kind of freedom. Freedom to and freedom from.”

“To want is to have a weakness.”

“Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.”

“When we think of the past it's the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.”

“You can only be jealous of someone who has something you think you ought to have yourself.”

“You can think clearly only with your clothes on.”

“You can't help what you feel, but you can help how you behave.”