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Margaret Atwood’s Quotes to Inspire and Empower

Margaret Atwood, a titan in the literary world since the 1960s, transcends labels. Canadian author, poet, literary critic – her influence stretches far beyond these titles. Born in 1939, her prolific career has yielded a treasure trove of novels, poems, essays, and critical works that continue to resonate with readers today.

This blog post delves into the captivating world of Margaret Atwood quotes. We’ll not only share some of her most popular sayings, but also dissect the deeper meanings hidden within.

Explore the chilling truth behind Atwood’s quotes: “Don’t let the bastards grind you down,” or unpack the layers of empowerment woven into “A word after a word after a word is power.” 

Margaret Atwood Famous Works and Novels

These are some of Margaret Atwood’s books and literary works:

Margaret Atwood Quotes on Writing

Margaret Atwood’s wisdom extends beyond the worlds she creates. Her quotes on writing offer a treasure trove of inspiration for aspiring and established authors alike. Atwood emphasizes the importance of consistent practice, stating “You become a writer by writing. There is no other way.” She tackles the fear that can impede creativity, urging writers to confront it and discover its source.

Atwood reminds us that powerful stories begin with captivating first lines, emphasizing the importance of grabbing the reader from the very start. Perhaps most importantly, she highlights the transformative power of language itself, declaring “A word after a word after a word is power.

“You become a writer by writing. There is no other way. So do it. Do it more. Do it again. Do it better. Fail. Fail better.”
- Margaret Atwood
“What you want on the first page is something that is going to beckon the reader in.”
- Margaret Atwood
“If you really do want to write, and you're struggling to get started, you're afraid of something. What is that fear?”
- Margaret Atwood
“A word after a word after a word is power.”
- Margaret Atwood
“Nobody knows where ideas come from, but let us say, if you immerse yourself in something, whether it be music, painting, or writing…you are going to get ideas about it. But you have to do the immersing first. You're not just sitting there, waiting for lightning to strike.”
- Margaret Atwood
“What you read is as important as what you write.”
- Margaret Atwood
“You become a writer by writing. There is no other way. So do it. Do it more. Do it again. Do it better. Fail. Fail better.”
- Margaret Atwood
"Once you feel there’s nothing else that you can do to your manuscript to improve it, that’s when you need to hand it to an outside observer. What I’d like to have is people who are dedicated readers but who are not in the publishing business. You want somebody who can give you a true opinion and it’s better if it isn’t your spouse. You don’t want to have any of those frosty silences over the breakfast table, and you also don’t want to have put them in that position."
- Margaret Atwood
“Which comes first, character or story? There is no such thing as first, because a person is what happens to them. So a novel is characters interacting with events. Characters don’t just exist in isolation. You’re finding out who they are through how they interact, through the decisions they make, through how other people treat them, through how they react to how other people treat them. All of these interactions that change us, that reveal us to ourselves, that reveal us to other people, and therefore to the reader.”
- Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood Quotes About Love

Margaret Atwood’s perspective on love is multifaceted and insightful. She acknowledges the intensity of falling in love, using vivid imagery with Falling in love, we said; I fell for him. We were falling women. We believed in it, this downward motion: so lovely, like flying, and yet at the same time so dire, so extreme, so unlikely. However, she doesn’t shy away from love’s impermanence, captured in the melancholic quote “The more difficult it was to love the particular man beside us, the more we believed in Love, abstract and total.

Atwood emphasizes honesty and vulnerability, stating “What is it that I’ll want from you? Not love: that would be too much to ask. Only a listener, perhaps; only someone who will see me.” Ultimately, Atwood’s quotes on love paint a picture of a complex and powerful emotion, one that can be both exhilarating and challenging.

“Love blurs your vision; but after it recedes, you can see more clearly than ever. It's like the tide going out, revealing whatever's been thrown away and sunk: broken bottles, old gloves, rusting pop cans, nibbled fishbodies, bones. This is the kind of thing you see if you sit in the darkness with open eyes, not knowing the future.”
- Margaret Atwood
"The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love."
- Margaret Atwood
"Love's never a fair trade."
- Margaret Atwood
“I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary.”
- Margaret Atwood
"Falling in love, we said; I fell for him. We were falling women. We believed in it, this downward motion: so lovely, like flying, and yet at the same time so dire, so extreme, so unlikely. God is love, they once said, but we reversed that, and love, like heaven, was always just around the corner. The more difficult it was to love the particular man beside us, the more we believed in Love, abstract and total. We were waiting, always, for the incarnation. That word, made flesh."
- Margaret Atwood
"And sometimes it happened, for a time. That kind of love comes and goes and is hard to remember afterwards, like pain. You would look at the man one day and you would think, I loved you, and the tense would be past, and you would be filled with a sense of wonder, because it was such an amazing and precarious and dumb thing to have done; and you would know too why your friends had been evasive about it, at the time."
- Margaret Atwood
“I want to be held and told my name. I want to be valued, in ways that I am not; I want to be more than valuable. I repeat my former name; remind myself of what I once could do, how others saw me. I want to steal something.”
- Margaret Atwood
“How could I be sleeping with this particular man.... Surely only true love could justify my lack of taste.”
- Margaret Atwood
"In spirit she walks the city, traces its labyrinths, its dingy mazes: each assignation, each rendezvous, each door and stair and bed. What he said, what she said, what they did, what they did then. Even the times they argued, fought, parted, agonized, rejoined. How they’d loved to cut themselves on each other, taste their own blood. We were ruinous together, she thinks. But how else can we live, these days, except in the midst of ruin?”
- Margaret Atwood
“This is how the girl who couldn't speak and the man who couldn't see fell in love.”
- Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood Feminism Quotes

Margaret Atwood’s feminist voice rings loud and clear in her quotes. She challenges traditional gender roles with wit, stating “We are not the weaker sex. The weaker sex is the sex that needs an operation to change a tire.” Atwood doesn’t shy away from highlighting the realities women face, captured in the poignant quote “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.

Her words inspire resilience with the powerful message “Don’t let the bastards grind you down,” a call to action for women to resist oppression. Ultimately, Atwood envisions a future of equality, expressed in the hopeful quote “In time all girls will be able to grow up believing that there are no avenues closed to them simply because they are girls.

“Men often ask me, ‘Why are your female characters so paranoid? It’s not paranoia. It’s recognition of their situation.’”
- Margaret Atwood
“‘Why do men feel threatened by women?’ I asked a male friend of mine … ‘They’re afraid women will laugh at them,’ he said. ‘Undercut their world view.’ … Then I asked some women students in a poetry seminar I was giving, ‘Why do women feel threatened by men?’ ‘They’re afraid of being killed,’ they said.”
- Margaret Atwood
“We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.”
- Margaret Atwood
“Women will suffer most from the devastation of climate change, as lawlessness triggered by disasters and food shortages make them vulnerable to rape and other violence.”
- Margaret Atwood
“I don’t even call it climate change, I call it “the everything change.” It’s a change of everything. We think climate and we think, more clouds, more rain, oh, who cares. The everything change can never be the front and center of a book because it’s not a human being.”
- Margaret Atwood
“In time all girls will be able to grow up believing that there are no avenues closed to them simply because they are girls.”
- Margaret Atwood
"Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who'll shout at you or someone who believes women are human beings. To me it's the latter, so I sign up"
- Margaret Atwood
“Forgiving men is so much easier than forgiving women.”
- Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood Mother Quote

Margaret Atwood’s quotes on mothers explore the nuanced and often complicated relationship between mother and child. She acknowledges the idealized image children have of their mothers.

This resonates with the complex reality of motherhood, where both mother and child are individuals with their own desires and flaws.

Atwood also touches on the strength mothers possess, with the powerful quote “Because I am a mother, I am capable of being shocked: as I never was when I was not one.” Motherhood opens a mother’s eyes to the harsh realities of the world, yet equips her with a fierce protectiveness.

Ultimately, Atwood’s quotes on motherhood capture the enduring bond between mother and child, acknowledging its complexities while celebrating its power.

"Because I am a mother, I am capable of being shocked: as I never was when I was not one."
- Margaret Atwood
“No mother is ever, completely, a child's idea of what a mother should be, and I suppose it works the other way around as well. But despite everything, we didn't do too badly by one another, we did as well as most.”
- Margaret Atwood
"All fathers are invisible in daytime; daytime is ruled by mothers and fathers come out at night. Darkness brings home fathers, with their real, unspeakable power. There is more to fathers than meets the eye."
- 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
"Most mothers worry when their daughters reach adolescence but I was the opposite. I relaxed, I sighed with relief. Little girls are cute and small only to adults. To one another they are not cute. They are life sized."
- Margaret Atwood

General Margaret Atwood Quotes and Captions

Margaret Atwood’s sharp wit and keen observations extend far beyond specific themes. She delves into the human condition, urging us to be wary of unchecked power and the dangers of escalating conflict.

Atwood emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and staying curious about the world around us. Her insightful quotes weave humor with serious topics, reminding us to find balance and reconnect with nature.

Ultimately, Atwood’s words inspire action and resilience, leaving the reader with a sense of hope for the future and the enduring power of storytelling.

“War is what happens when language fails.”
- Margaret Atwood
“When you're young, you think everything you do is disposable. You move from now to now, crumpling time up in your hands, tossing it away. You're your own speeding car. You think you can get rid of things, and people too—leave them behind. You don't yet know about the habit they have, of coming back. Time in dreams is frozen. You can never get away from where you've been.”
- Margaret Atwood
“You can only be jealous of someone who has something you think you ought to have yourself.”
- Margaret Atwood
“There is more than one kind of freedom," said Aunt Lydia. "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
“Knowing too much about other people puts you in their power, they have a claim on you, you are forced to understand their reasons for doing things and then you are weakened.”
- Margaret Atwood
“But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest. Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn't really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isn't about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it's about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing.”
- Margaret Atwood
“But people will do anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning. No use, that is. No plot.”
- Margaret Atwood
“Touch comes before sight, before speech. It is the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth.”
- Margaret Atwood
“The 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”
- Margaret Atwood
“Hatred would have been easier. With hatred, I would have known what to do. Hatred is clear, metallic, one-handed, unwavering; unlike love.”
- Margaret Atwood
“You can think clearly only with your clothes on.”
- Margaret Atwood
“Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.”
- 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 else. Even when there is no one.”
- Margaret Atwood
“It's impossible to say a thing exactly the way it was, because of what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out, there are too many parts, sides, crosscurrents, nuances; too many gestures, which could mean this or that, too many shapes which can never be fully described, too many flavors, in the air or on the tongue, half-colors, too many.”
- Margaret Atwood
“Knowing was a temptation. What you don't know won't tempt you.”
- Margaret Atwood
“I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no light without shadow; or rather, no shadow unless there is also light.”
- Margaret Atwood

Delve into the world of Margaret Atwood’s quotes, and you’ll find yourself face-to-face with a literary titan’s wisdom. These aren’t mere sayings; they’re potent reminders to challenge the status quo, embrace our power as storytellers, and find beauty in the complexities of life.

With each thought-provoking quote or saying, Atwood invites us on a journey of self-discovery, reminding us that even in the darkest of times, the human spirit endures, ever searching for light and understanding. Continue checking Read & Blog for more quotes and book reviews! 

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