“ The society in 'The Handmaid's Tale' is a throwback to the early Puritans whom I studied extensively at Harvard under Perry Miller, to whom the book is dedicated. Margaret Atwood
“ Thinking he knows can be a trap. An ex-professor once told him he had a diamond-hard intellect and he’d been flattered at the time. Now he considers the nature of diamonds. Although sharp and glitteri… Margaret Atwood
“ Of course (said Oryx), having a money value was no substitute for love. Every child should have love, every person should have it. . . . but love was undependable, it came and then it went, so it was… Margaret Atwood
“ Now I only need to lookout at them through my sky-blue eyes.They see their own ill willstaring them in the foreheadand turn tail. Margaret Atwood
“ It isn't running away they're afraid of. We wouldn't get far. It's those other escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge. Margaret Atwood
“ Having long ago whispered , I now realize that this wish will indeed be fulfilled, and sooner rather than later. No matter that I've changed my mind about it. Margaret Atwood
“ Anyway, you don't know what's going to happen. I'm only just thickening the plot.--I'd say it was pretty thick already.Thick plots are my specialty. If you want a thinner kind, look elsewhere. Margaret Atwood
“ What fabrications they are, mothers. Scarecrows, wax dolls for us to stick pins into, crude diagrams. We deny them an existence of their own, we make them up to suit ourselves -- our own hungers, our… Margaret Atwood
“ She would roll up her sleeves and dispense with sentimentality, and do whatever blood-soaked, bad-smelling thing had to be done. She would become adept with axes. Margaret Atwood
“ Moira had power now, she’d been set loose, she’d set herself loose. She was now a loose woman.I think we found this frightening. Margaret Atwood
“ It was Colonel Parkman who upped stakes, crossed the border, and named our town, thus perversely commemorating a battle in which he'd lost. (Though perhaps that's not so unusual: many people take a cu… Margaret Atwood
“ I shouldn't have taken a vow of silence, I told myself. What did I want? Nothing much. Just a memorial. But what is a memorial, when you come right down to it, but a commemoration of wounds endured? E… Margaret Atwood
“ I consider telling my brother, asking him for help. But tell him what exactly? I have no black eyes, no bloody noses to report: Cordelia does nothing physical. If it was boys, chasing or teasing, he w… Margaret Atwood
“ Bless you. Be careful. Anyone intending to meddle with words needs such blessing, such warning. Margaret Atwood
