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.
Margaret AtwoodMy brother and I were both good at science, and we were both good at English literature. Either one of us could have gone either way.
Margaret AtwoodWithout the protection of surliness and levity, all children would be crushed by the pastโthe past of others, loaded onto their shoulders. Selfishness is their saving grace.
Margaret AtwoodI did not know that 'poetess' was an insult, and that I myself would some day be called one. I did not know that to be told I had transcended my gender would be considered a compliment. I didn't know โ yet โ that black was compulsory. All of that was in the future. When I was sixteen, it was simple. Poetry existed; therefore it could be written; and nobody had told me โ yet โ the many, many reasons why it could not be written by me.
Margaret Atwood