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b2dbd5a He's humanoid, he's hominid, he's an aberration, he's abominable; he'd be legendary, if there were anyone left to relate legends. Margaret Atwood
3ad10dc Change can be accommodated by any system depending on its rate, Crake used to say. Touch your head to a wall, nothing happens, but if the same head hits the wall at ninety miles an hour, it's red paint. We're in a speed tunnel, Jimmy. When the water's moving faster than the boat, you can't control a thing. time Margaret Atwood
6d0d06d We thought we could do better. Better? I say, in a small voice. How can he think this is better? Better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse, for some. Margaret Atwood
c1be6ce Human beings- I've observed- are hot-wired for score keeping, and since they like to win, they're always going one better than the other fellow. Margaret Atwood
dd10c70 The imprint left on her mind by the long famished body that had seemed in the darkness to consist of nothing by sharp crags and angles, the memory of its painfully-defined almost skeletal ribcage, a pattern of ridges like a washboard, was fading as rapidly as any other transient impression on a soft surface. Margaret Atwood
4060147 Now I can see how that can happen. You can fall in love with anybody -- a fool, a criminal, a nothing. There are no good rules. Margaret Atwood
2999225 One young fellow pointed to another steamer in the distance, and said it was the Lady of the Lake, a United States vessel which until recently was thought to be the fastest boat on the Lake; but she had just lost a trial-of-speed race to the new Royal Mail Standard boat, the Eclipse, which outran her by four minutes and a half. And I said didn't that make him proud, and he said no, because he had bet a dollar on the Lady. And all present la.. inspirational reflective Margaret Atwood
a5bba8b because that was the effect love had on you. It snuck up on you, grabbed hold of you before you know it, and then there was nothing you could do. Once you were in it - in love - you would be swept away, regardless. Or so the books had it. Margaret Atwood
681c4dd Our big mistake was teaching them to read. We won't make that mistake again. Margaret Atwood
71b27db Don't interfere with false gods, you'll get the gold paint all over your hands. Margaret Atwood
0fecf75 But how can you have a sense of wonder if you're prepared for everything? Prepared for the sunset. Prepared for the moonrise. Prepared for the ice storm. What a flat existence that would be. Margaret Atwood
5adbfd4 Dream steals from its lair towards its prey. Margaret Atwood
a4e1578 Eu gostaria de nao ter vergonha. Gostaria de ser sem vergonha. Gostaria de ser ignorante. Entao eu nao saberia o quanto era ignorante. Margaret Atwood
10315cb So when time had begun to run out on Adelia with no really acceptable husband in sight, she'd married money -- crude money, button money. She was expected to refine this money, like oil. money refine oil husband Margaret Atwood
b29055a How soon before there are ancient texts they feel they have to obey but have forgotten how to interpret? Margaret Atwood
6c167dd The sitting room is subdued, symmetrical; it's one of the shapes money takes when it freezes. Margaret Atwood
2ffd0d3 Each of the five tribes claims to have been the victorious attacker. Each recalls the slaughter with relish. Each believes it was ordained by their own god as righteous vengeance, because of the unholy practices carried on in the city. Evil must be cleansed with blood, they say. On that day the blood ran like water, so afterwards it must have been very clean. Margaret Atwood
398e8b8 I really don't know what men used to say. I had only their words for it. not-trusting what-men-say Margaret Atwood
82e23df All that wasted time, and he didn't even know who'd wasted it. Margaret Atwood
95c066b All those paintings of women, in art galleries, surprised at private moments. Nymph Sleeping. Susanna and the Elders. Woman bathing, one foot in a tin tub - Renoir, or was it Degas? both, both women plump. Diana and her maidens, a moment before they catch the hunter's prying eyes. Never any paintings called Man Washing Socks in Sink.) Margaret Atwood
d99bc03 A sad pretty girl inspires the urge to console, unlike a sad old crone. Margaret Atwood
410374b So we couldn't mingle with them, but we could eavesdrop. We got our knowledge that way--we caught it like germs. Margaret Atwood
4a26589 the hearts gone bubonic with jealousy and greed, glinting through the vests and sweaters of anyone at all. Margaret Atwood
f746f46 For if the world treats you well, Sir, you come to believe you are deserving of it. Mary Margaret Atwood
d1508ac A Sister, dipped in blood Margaret Atwood
249a6d9 I wish this story were different. I wish it were more civilized. I wish it showed me in a better light, if not happier, then at least more active, less hesitant, less distracted by trivia. I wish it had more shape. I wish it were about love, or about sudden realizations important to one's life, or even about sunsets, birds, rainstorms, or snow. Margaret Atwood
3ea25df She was an infallible prophetess, and these powers came from her ability to look into the patterns of the universe. Margaret Atwood
812f900 The moment of betrayal is the worst, the moment when you know beyond any doubt that you've been betrayed: that some other human being has wished you that much evil. Margaret Atwood
2ac6b78 But I'm ravenous for news, any kind of news; even if it's false news, it must mean something. false-news news Margaret Atwood
d978fde In those timeless years between infancy and, say, seven what is has always been: in that way children inhabit the realm of myth. Margaret Atwood
49812ca I love you. You're the only one." She isn't the first woman he's ever said that to. He shouldn't have used it up so much earlier in his life, he shouldn't have treated it like a tool, a wedge, a key to open women. By the time he got around to meaning it, the words had sounded fraudulent to him and he'd been ashamed to pronounce them." Margaret Atwood
aba41e7 Things, the word she used when whatever it stood for was too distasteful or filthy or horrible to pass her lips. A successful life for her was one that avoided things, excluded things. Such things do not happen to nice women. Margaret Atwood
653a862 You don't take a hammer - not to mention an electric screwdriver and a pipe wrench - to a guy's computer without being quite angry. Margaret Atwood
584b0b4 Think of yourselves as pearls. We, sitting in our rows, eyes down, we make her salivate morally. We are hers to define, we must suffer her adjectives. I think about pearls. Pearls are congealed oyster spit. rational witty Margaret Atwood
acfdad0 Then there's the two of us. This word is far too short for us, it has only four letters, too sparse to fill those deep bare vacuums between the stars that press on us with their deafness. It's not love we don't wish to fall into, but that fear. This word is not enough but it will have to do. It's a single vowel in this metallic silence, a mouth that says O again and again in wonder and pain, a breath, a finger grip on a cliffside. You can h.. poetry Margaret Atwood
7f0c52c I wonder why trying to transcend time never even succeeds in stopping it... Margaret Atwood
259bc33 A return to traditional values. Waste not want not. I am not being wasted. Why do I want? Margaret Atwood
6a74cfc I know I was alright on Friday when I got up; if anything I was feeling more stolid than usual. Margaret Atwood
9be9bc4 Also I could hear Amanda's voice: Why are you being so weak? Love's never a fair trade. So Jimmy's tired of you, so what, there's guys all over the place like germs, and you can pick them like flowers and toss them away when they're wilted. But you have to act like you're having a spectacular time and every day's a party. love germs jimmy ren flowers party Margaret Atwood
eddc9bd But I envy the Commander's Wife her knitting. It's good to have small goals that can be easily attained. Margaret Atwood
f2473ae Symbolic thinking of any kind would signal downfall, in Crake's view. Next they'd be inventing idols, and funerals, and grave goods, and the afterlife, and sin, and Linear B, and kings, and then slavery and war. Margaret Atwood
26f2eaa He's a young man, my own age or a little older, which is young for a man although not for a woman, Margaret Atwood
3f162d7 Why is war so much like a practical joke? she thinks. Hiding behind bushes, leaping out, with not much difference between Boo! and Bang! except the blood. The loser falls over with a scream, followed with a foolish expression, mouth agape, eyes akimbo. Those old biblical kings, setting their feet on conquered necks, stringing up rival kings on trees, rejoicing in piles of heads - there was an element of childish glee in all of that. Maybe i.. Margaret Atwood
e3080c7 Did I really wear bathing suits, at the beach? I did, without thought, among men, without caring that my legs, my arms, my thighs and back were on display, could be seen. Shameful, immodest. Margaret Atwood