Margaret Atwood

When you are in the middle of a story, it isn’t a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood.

Murderess is a strong word to have attached to you. It has a smell to it, that word - musky and oppressive, like dead flowers in a vase.

It is a comfort, perhaps, to have a lover who is less than a whole man.

You think that you cannot live without hope, but you can. You can live without hope and curiosity. It is a curse, to be curious. And to hope, always - always - to hope.

The governesses drew themselves up when they spoke to me, and before they left they would pull down their sleeves and make sure the children's mittens were buttoned up, but nothing ever made me think I might be different from them.

You decide what you want, and then you do it until it’s done.

There is much less glory in a good death than in a fighting death, a death one has inflicted on an enemy. It is as though it is not glorious enough for the soldiers to kill each other, they have to kill each other in a specific way: hand to hand, in single combat, in personal combat.

If we knew what people's hearts were really like, nobody could ever take advantage. People pretend to be good, but they're really bad, because if they were good, they wouldn't have to pretend to be.

Men always think money is what they need, but what they really need is comfort.

Sometimes the human spirit simply needs a great deal of nourishment.

Sometimes the ignorance of men is very hard indeed!

There’s a desire within her that is nothing more nor less than an expression of a hunger for property: house, clothing, jewelry, beaver hats, shoes, gloves, china dishes, tables, chairs, rugs, towels. These gifts make her lavish, confident, independent, her own woman, mistress of the household.