In high school, in 1956, at the age of sixteen, we were not taught "creative writing." We were taught literature and grammar. So no one ever told me I couldn't write both prose and poetry, and I started out writing all the things I still write: poetry, prose fiction - which took me longer to get published - and non-fiction prose.

The society in 'The Handmaid's Tale' is a throwback to the early Puritans whom I studied extensively at Harvard under Perry Miller, to whom the book is dedicated.

I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one 'race' - the human race - and that we are all members of it.

You're dead, Cordelia.' No I'm not. 'Yes you are. You're dead. Lie down.

A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.

...and nostalgia swept through Jimmy like a sudden hunger.

...how much needless despair has been caused by a series of biological mismatches, a misalignment of the hormones and pheromones? Resulting in the fact that the one you love so passionately won't or can't love you. As a species we're pathetic that way: imperfectly monogamous.