Quote

When I was 16 I started publishing all kinds of things in school magazines. My main feedback came from my English teacher, Miss Bessie B. Billings, who said, 'I can't understand this at all, dear, so it must be good.

Margaret Atwood

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
School
Kinds
Bessie
Must
English
Billing
Kind
Dear
Feedback
Good
Missing
Publishing
Things
Teacher
Encouragement
Started
Magazines
Came
Main
Understand
Miss

More quotes by Margaret Atwood

Image
It's his word against the Commander's, unless he wants to head a posse. Kick in the door, and what did I tell you? Caught in the act, sinfully Scrabbling. Quick, eat those words.
Margaret Atwood
Image
and each of his voices left his body in a different colored soul and floated up towards the sun still singing.
Margaret Atwood
Image
Amazing how the heart clutches at anything familiar, whimpering Mine!Mine!
Margaret Atwood
Image
Just as if you do a mash-up of reality from the point of view of African Americans in this country, you're going to end up with something that will say, This is Black Lives Matter. It's not that people necessarily have started out from that premise. But if you're looking at reality, that will be the result because that is reality.
Margaret Atwood
Image
Write down the thoughts and even more, write down a specific line. If you don't, it'll fly away forever.
Margaret Atwood
Image
There's something to be said for hunger: at least it lets you know you're still alive.
Margaret Atwood
Image
If you disagree with your government, that's political. If you disagree with your government that is approaching theocracy, then you're evil.
Margaret Atwood
Image
I don't know why they are all so eager to be remembered. What good will it do them? There are some things that should be forgotten by everyone, and never spoken of again.
Margaret Atwood
Image
Maybe the life I think I'm living is a paranoid delusion...Sanity is a valuable possession I hoard it the way people once hoarded money. I save it, so I will have enough, when the time comes.
Margaret Atwood
Image
Don't misunderstand me. I am not scoffing at goodness, which is far more difficult to explain than evil, and far more complicated. But sometimes it's hard to put up with.
Margaret Atwood
Image
I write as if I've lived a lot of things I haven't lived.
Margaret Atwood
Image
Knowledge is power only as long as you keep your mouth shut.
Margaret Atwood
Image
Better not to invent her in her absence. Better to wait until she's actually here. Then he can make her up as she goes along.
Margaret Atwood
Image
The truth is seldom welcome, especially at dinner.
Margaret Atwood
Image
Come away with me, he said, we will live on a desert island. I said, I am a desert island. It was not what he had in mind.
Margaret Atwood
Image
Wars happen because the ones who start them think they can win.
Margaret Atwood
Image
Once upon a time, novelists of the 19th century, such as Charles Dickens, published in serial form.
Margaret Atwood
Image
Axiom: you are a sea. Your eye- lids curve over chaos My hands where they touch you, create small inhabited islands soon you will be all earth: a known land, a country.
Margaret Atwood
Image
I got into trouble a while ago for saying that I thought the internet led to increased literacy - people scolded me about the shocking grammar to be found online - but I was talking about fundamentals: quite simply, you can't use the net unless you can read.
Margaret Atwood
Image
People cry at weddings for the same reason they cry at happy endings: because they so desperately want to believe in something they know is not credible.
Margaret Atwood