Live in the present, make the most of it, it's all you've got.
PresentMargaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleYou can't help what you feel, but you can help how you behave.
Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleKnowing was a temptation. What you don't know won't tempt you.
TemptationMargaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleWhen we think of the past it's the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.
MemoriesMargaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleYou can only be jealous of someone who has something you think you ought to have yourself.
JealousyMargaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TalePain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.
PainMargaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleAnother belief of mine; that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.
AgeMargaret AtwoodIgnoring isn't the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.
IgnoranceMargaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleDon't let the bastards grind you down.
Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleNothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you'd be boiled to death before you knew it.
ChangeMargaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleBut remember that forgiveness too is a power.
Forgiveness & MercyMargaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleTruly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.
Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleBut people will do anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning. No use, that is. No plot.
Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleThe 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.
TreasonMargaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleOrdinary is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.
Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleWhat I need is perspective. The illusion of depth, created by a frame, the arrangement of shapes on a flat surface.
Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleWe were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print... it gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.
Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleThere is more than one kind of freedom. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it.
Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's TaleIt’s Paradise, but we can’t get out of it. And anything you can’t get out of is Hell.
Margaret Atwood in Watchmen, Season 1 Episode 8Heroes need monsters to establish their heroic credentials. You need something scary to overcome.
Heros, MonstersMargaret AtwoodThe genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don't think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.
Margaret AtwoodA voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.
Margaret Atwood