Quotes by Margaret Atwood

• Popular art is the dream of society; it does not examine itself.
• Never pray for justice, because you might get some.
• In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
• The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose.
• 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.
• Myths can't be translated as they did in their ancient soil. We can only find our own meaning in our own time.
• The beginning of Canadian cultural nationalism was not 'Am I really that oppressed?' but 'Am I really that boring?'
• The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love.
• The story as told in The Odyssey doesn't hold water. There are too many inconsistencies.
• This above all, to refuse to be a victim.
• War is what happens when language fails.
• We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.
• We thought we were running away from the grownups, and now we are the grownups.
• Their mothers had finally caught up to them and been proven right. There were consequences after all but they were the consequences to things you didn't even know you'd done.
• An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness.
• A divorce is like an amputation: you survive it, but there's less of you.
• A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.
• A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.
• A word after a word after a word is power.
• Another belief of mine; that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.
• Because I am a mother, I am capable of being shocked: as I never was when I was not one.
• Canada was built on dead beavers.
• For years I wanted to be older, and now I am.
• Gardening is not a rational act.
• I've never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It's probably because they have forgotten their own.
• 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.
• You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.
• True strength is not in being the loudest voice in the room, but in being the one who speaks with conviction.
• The only way to truly grow is to embrace the discomfort of change and trust in the journey ahead.
• In the book of life, the answers are not always in the same chapter as the questions
• The only person you should strive each day to be better than, is the person you were yesterday.
• Success is like toilet paper; you only miss it when it’s gone.
• Success is like a snail; it takes a lot of effort to carry your shell but if you can find joy in the slow crawl, you're already winning the race.
• Success is not simply the outcome, it's the hilarious roadmap of misadventures and joyful detours we create along the way.
• Life without purpose is like a pencil without a sharpener; it’s harder to make an impact, but you've got to find the point!
• Success is just failure turned inside out. The most brilliant shades come from mistakes well accessorized.
• Creativity is like tea—brewing it requires time, patience, and a touch of playful chaos!
• Believe you can, and find allies along the way; success loves crowd funding.