You can never see yourself the way you are to someone else - to a man looking at you, from behind, when you don't know - because in a mirror your own head is always cranked around over your shoulder. A coy, inviting pose. You can hold up another mirror to see the back view, but then what you see is what so many painters have loved to paint - Woman Looking In Mirror, said to be an allegory of vanity. Though it is unlikely to be vanity, but the reverse: a search for flaws. What is it about me? Can so easily be construed as What is wrong with me?

— Margaret Atwood

You can only be jealous of someone who has something you think you ought to have yourself.

— Margaret Atwood

You can't change the past, Aunt Lou used to say. Oh, but I wanted to;that was the one thing I really wanted to do

— Margaret Atwood

You can think clearly only with your clothes on.

— Margaret Atwood

You can't lead if no one will follow.

— Margaret Atwood

You can wipe your feet on me, twist my motives around all you like, you can dump millstones on my head and drown me in the river, but you can’t get me out of the story. I’m the plot, babe, and don’t ever forget it.

— Margaret Atwood

You couldn’t leave words lying around where our enemies might find them.

— Margaret Atwood

You cynical shit," he told himself. Then he started to weep." Don't be so fucking sentimental," Brake used to tell him. But why not? Why shouldn't he be sentimental? It wasn't as if there was anyone around to question his

— Margaret Atwood

You fit into melike a hook into an area fish hookah open eye

— Margaret Atwood

You know 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 sounded fraudulent to him, and he'd been ashamed to pronounce them.

— Margaret Atwood