“ I had now been a servant for three years, and could act the part well enough by that time. But Nancy was very changeable, two-faced you might call her, and it wasn't easy to tell what she wanted from… Margaret Atwood
“ I didn't know I was about to be left with her idea of me; with her idea of my goodness pinned onto me like a badge and no chance to throw it back at her (as would have been the normal course of affair… Margaret Atwood
“ I consider these things idly. Each one of them seems the same size as all the others. Not one seems preferable. Fatigue is here, in my body, in my legs and eyes. That is what gets you in the end. Fait… Margaret Atwood
“ I can’t think of myself, my body, sometimes, without seeing the skeleton: how I must appear to an electron. A cradle of life, made of bones; and within, hazards, warped proteins, bad crystals jagged a… Margaret Atwood
“ I admired my mother in some ways, although things between us were never easy. She expected too much from me, I felt. She expected me to vindicate her life for her, and the choices she'd made. I didn't… Margaret Atwood
“ However she tried to hide it, she resented me, of course. There's only so long you can feel sorry for a person before you come to feel that their affliction is an act of malice committed by them again… Margaret Atwood
“ How old do you have to get before wisdom descends like a plastic bag over your head and you learn to keep your big mouth shut? Maybe never. Maybe you get more frivolous with age. Margaret Atwood
“ How much misery…how much needless despair has been caused by a series of biological mismatches, a misalignment of the hormones and pheromones? Resulting in the fact that the one you love so passionate… Margaret Atwood
“ How long were you supposed to mourn, and what did they say? Make your life a tribute to the loved one. Margaret Atwood
“ History (that listof ballooning wishes, flukes,bent times, plunges and mistakesclutched like parachutes)is rolling itself up in your headat one end unrolling at the other. Margaret Atwood
“ His generation believed that if there was trouble all you’d have to do was shoot someone and then it would be okay. Margaret Atwood
“ He'd wanted us to be more like boys, and now we were. You don't teach boys to be charming. It makes people think they are devious. Margaret Atwood
“ He needs to be listened to, he needs to be heard. He needs at least the illusion of being understood. Margaret Atwood
“ He knows this by the way the girl stumbles, and it occurs to him for the first time that by taking her with him he'll be slowed down. He'll be hampered by her ability to see. Margaret Atwood
“ He got his driver's license, he got his high school diploma, he got his university degree. He got a worried little furrow between his eyes. He did what he thought was expected of him, and brought the… Margaret Atwood
“ He feels like saying that of course there’s lint on Mr. Wiggly, or dust at any rate, or maybe rust; what does she expect, because as she is well aware Mr. Wiggly has been on the shelf for some time. Margaret Atwood
“ He doesn't know which is worse, a past he can't regain or a present that will destroy him if he looks at it too clearly. Then there's the future. Sheer vertigo. Margaret Atwood
“ Happy as a clam, is what my mother says for happy. I am happy as a clam: hard-shelled, firmly closed. Margaret Atwood
“ Guess it’s the climate change, says Sam. That’s what people say, the way they used to say, We’ve angered God. Margaret Atwood
