Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

"When I am writing fiction, I believe I am much better organized, more methodical - one has to be when writing a novel. Writing poetry is a state of free float."
118 Quotes
"When I am writing fiction, I believe I am much better organized, more methodical - one has to be when writing a novel. Writing poetry is a state of free float."
Margaret Atwood
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"The 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 Atwood
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"Every aspect of human technology has a dark side, including the bow and arrow."
Margaret Atwood
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"Gardening is not a rational act."
Margaret Atwood
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"Science fiction is filled with Martians and space travel to other planets, and things like that."
Margaret Atwood
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"You will always have partial points of view, and you'll always have the story behind the story that hasn't come out yet. And any form of journalism you're involved with is going to be up against a biased viewpoint and partial knowledge."
Margaret Atwood
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"I'm a strict, strict agnostic. It's very different from a casual, 'I don't know.' It's that you cannot present as knowledge something that is not knowledge. You can present it as faith, you can present it as belief, but you can't present it as fact."
Margaret Atwood
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"I tend to feel if people say they're going to do something, they will, if given the chance."
Margaret Atwood
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"If I were going to convert to any religion I would probably choose Catholicism because it at least has female saints and the Virgin Mary."
Margaret Atwood
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"The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love."
Margaret Atwood
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"If one of the arguments against eating meat is to do with cruelty and animal intelligence, then lab meat avoids that. There's also the environmental argument for it."
Margaret Atwood
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"Another belief of mine; that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise."
Margaret Atwood
"Please don't make the mistake of thinking that 'Oryx and Crake' is anti-science. Science is a way of knowing, and a tool. Like all ways of knowing and tools, it can be turned to bad uses. And it can be bought and sold, and it often is. But it is not in itself bad. Like electricity, it's neutral."
Margaret Atwood
"I hate to tell you this, but you will never actually go to a galaxy far, far away and encounter Darth Vader. That's science fiction; it isn't going to happen."
Margaret Atwood
"Sooner or later, I hate to break it to you, you're gonna die, so how do you fill in the space between here and there? It's yours. Seize your space."
Margaret Atwood
"Communications technology changes possibilities for communication, but that doesn't mean it changes the inherited structure of the brain. So you may think that you're addicted to online reading, but as soon as it isn't available anymore, your brain will pretty immediately adjust to other forms of reading. It's a habit like all habits."
Margaret Atwood
"If I pick up a book with spaceships on the cover, I want spaceships. If I see one with dragons, I want there to be dragons inside the book. Proper labeling. Ethical labeling. I don't want to open up my cornflakes and find that they're full of pebbles... You need to respect the reader enough not to call it something it isn't."
Margaret Atwood
"I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one 'race' - the human race - and that we are all members of it."
Margaret Atwood
"Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but ­essentially you’re on your own. ­Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine."
Margaret Atwood
"You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer."
Margaret Atwood
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