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Now I can see how that can happen. You can fall in love with anybody--a fool, a criminal, a nothing. There are no good rules.

Margaret Atwood

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Margaret Atwood
Age: 85
Born: 1939
Born: November 18
Essayist
Inventor
Literary Critic
Non-Fiction Writer
Novelist
Pedagogue
Poet
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Ottawa (Ontario)
Margaret Eleanor Atwood
Happen
Fall
Happens
Nothing
Criminal
Good
Criminals
Love
Rules
Anybody
Fool

More quotes by Margaret Atwood

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It's a feature of our age that if you write a work of fiction, everyone assumes that the people and events in it are disguised biography — but if you write your biography, it's equally assumed you're lying your head off.
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Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.
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I feel like the word shatter.
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We are a society dying, said Aunt Lydia, of too much choice.
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I enjoyed teaching. I liked the students. Having to formulate my ideas about literature made them clearer. I did not particularly enjoy the more bureaucratic aspects of the job. However, if you are teaching fervently, your energy and time are used up at a great rate.
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Thy only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die, John and Mary die, John and Mary die.
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You can't keep a cool head when you're drowning in love. You just trash around a lot and scream, and wear yourself out.
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I don't want to see anyone. I lie in the bedroom with the curtains drawn and nothingness washing over me like a sluggish wave. Whatever is happening to me is my own fault. I have done something wrong, something so huge I can't even see it, something that's drowning me. I am inadequate and stupid, without worth. I might as well be dead.
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If you want to be a writer, you should go into the largest library you can find and stand there contemplating the books that have been written. Then you should ask yourself, 'Do I really have anything to add?' If you have the arrogance or the humility to say yes, you will know you have the vocation.
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Happiness is a garden walled with glass: there's no way in or out.
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In Paradise there are no stories, because there are no journeys.
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They spent the first three years of school getting you to pretend stuff and then the rest of it marking you down if you did the same thing.
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A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.
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That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.
Margaret Atwood
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The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn't one.
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A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason. Think of it as the altar of the Muse Oblivion, to whom you sacrifice your botched first drafts, the tokens of your human imperfection.
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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.
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What we share may be a lot like a traffic accident but we get one another. We are survivors of each other. We have been shark to one another, but also lifeboat. That counts for something.
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I am rather saddened at the end of a book. I think most writers find this. It's like a friend departing on a voyage.
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There's something to be said for hunger: at least it lets you know you're still alive.
Margaret Atwood