“ Imagine a famine. Now imagine a piece of bread. Both of these things are real but you happen to be in the same room with only one of them. Put yourself into a different room, that’s what the mind is f… Margaret Atwood
“ If you worked out enough, maybe the man would too. Maybe you would be able to work it out together, as if the two of you were a puzzle that could be solved; otherwise, one of you, most likely the man,… Margaret Atwood
“ If it's a story I'm telling, then I have control over the ending...But if it's a story, even in my head, I must be telling it to someone.You don't tell a story only to yourself. There's always someone… Margaret Atwood
“ I've learned to do without a lot of things. If you have a lot of things, said Aunt Lydia, you get too attached to this material world and you forget about spiritual values. Margaret Atwood
“ I'm fine, said Pilar, for the moment. And the moment is the only time we can be fine in. Margaret Atwood
“ I would like to believe this is a story I'm telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it's a story I'm telling… Margaret Atwood
“ I was unfair to him, of course, but where would I have been without unfairness? In thrall, in harness. Young women need unfairness, it’s one of their few defenses. They need their callousness, they ne… Margaret Atwood
“ I want to see what can be seen, of him, take him in, memorize him, save him up so I can live on the image, later: the lines of his body, the texture of his flesh, the glisten of sweat on his pelt, his… Margaret Atwood
“ I walk to the corner and wait. I used to be bad at waiting. They also serve who only stand and wait, said Aunt Lydia. She made us memorize it. She also said, Not all of you will make it through. Some… Margaret Atwood
“ I tried to visualize my jealousy as a yellowy-brown cloud boiling around inside me, then going out through my nose like smoke and turning into a stone and falling down into the ground. That did work a… Margaret Atwood
“ I sort of like watching them, he said; I watch laundromat washers the way other people watch television, it's soothing because you always know what to expect and you don't have to think about it. Exce… Margaret Atwood
“ I sit at the little table, eating creamed corn with a fork. I have a fork and a spoon, but never a knife. When there's meat they cut it up for me ahead of time, as if I'm lacking manual skills or teet… Margaret Atwood
“ I should have married Constance, he says. That’s his ace: plonk! Right down on the table. Those five words are usually very effective: he might score a barrage of hostility, and maybe even some tears. Margaret Atwood
“ I remember a television program I once saw [...] I must have been seven or eight, too young to understand it. It was the sort of thing my mother liked to watch: historical, educational. She tried to e… Margaret Atwood
“ I guess you get all my money, I said. And I'm not even dead. I was trying for a joke, but it came out sounding macabre.Hush, he said. He was still kneeling on the floor. You know I'll always take care… Margaret Atwood
“ I don’t think they’ll ever replace the living and breathing, says Gary. They said that about e-books, says Kevin. You can’t stop progress. Margaret Atwood
“ His father was self-made, but his mother was constructed by others, and such edifices are notoriously fragile. Thus Margaret Atwood
“ Here is a handfulof shadow I have brought back to you:this decay, this hope, this mouth-ful of dirt, this poetry. Margaret Atwood
“ Help is what they offer but gratitude is what they want, they roll around in it like cats in the catnip. Margaret Atwood
