You say, The sensed absence of God and the sensed presence amount to much the same thing, only in reverse.
Margaret AtwoodYou're never going to kill storytelling, because it's built into the human plan. We come with it.
Margaret AtwoodIf I am good enough and quiet enough, perhaps after all they will let me go; but itโs not easy being quiet and good, itโs like hanging on to the edge of a bridge when youโve already fallen over; you donโt seem to be moving, just dangling there, and yet it is taking all your strength.
Margaret AtwoodBy telling you anything at all I'm at least believing in you, believe you're there, I believe you into being. Because I'm telling you this story I will your existence. I tell, therefore you are. So I will go on. So I will myself to go on.
Margaret AtwoodShe wasn't ready to settle down, she told her friends. That was one way of putting it. Another was would have been that she had not found anyone to settle down with. There had been several men in her life, but they hadn't been convincing. They'd been somewhat like her table - quickly acquired, brightened up a little, but temporary. The time for that kind of thing was running out, however. She was tired of renting.
Margaret AtwoodBut 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