The temptation is to stay inside; to subside into the kind of recluse whom neighborhood children regard with derision and little awe; to let the hedges and weeds grow up, to allow the doors to rust shut, to lie on my bed in some gown-shaped garment and let my hair lengthens and spread out over the pillow and my fingernails to sprout into claws, while candle wax drips onto the carpet. But long ago I made a choice between classicism and romanticism. I prefer to be upright and contained—an urn in daylight.
Margaret AtwoodAll writers must go from now to once a upon a time; all must go from here to there; all must descend to where the stories are kept; all must take care not to be captured and held immobile by the past.
Margaret AtwoodHappy as a clam, is what my mother says for happy. I am happy as a clam: hard-shelled, firmly closed.
Margaret AtwoodA ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.
Margaret Atwood