Margaret Atwood Quotes

The novel has always been the form that incorporates other forms. For me, it has always been the ultimate medium.

There are many reasons why novelists write, but they all have one thing in common - a need to create an alternative world.

I am a better novelist than a poet, playwright, or essayist.

I've stopped reading fiction. I don't read it at all. I read other things: history, biography. I don't have the same interest in fiction that I once did.

I am really excited by the form of short fiction.

Nonfiction, to me, feels like an argument, whereas a novel is like a series of questions.

I've always been a little bit more of a novel reader than a short story reader. I think the first books that made me want to be a writer were novels.

The thing I am attracted to is just good writing and stories that are based somewhat in reality.

I think the short story is a very underrated art form. We know that novels deserve respect.

There are some subjects that can only be tackled in fiction.

I want prose fiction to be recognized as that, and I'm not interested in writing as it becomes more personal.

Short stories are fiction's R & D department, and failed or less-than-conclusive experiments are not just to be expected but to be hoped for.

Though my stories aren't autobiographical, I do sometimes use things from my life.

I like reading a lot. Jeffrey Archer and Robert Ludlum are my favourite authors. I love making realistic cinema, so I read non-fiction more.

I like novelists who can create other interesting worlds.

I find that short stories are almost like palate cleansers or brain cleansers.

What greatly annoys me is sometimes you see the short story being described as a training ground for the novel. Kind of like an apprenticeship. And in lots of ways, it's a far harder form.

My novels are all ideas.

A novel, in the end, is a container, a shape which you are trying to pour your story into.

In terms of fiction, I'd rather go out and have a good time than read a book about someone having a good or bad time.

I love the idea of real-life experiences finding their way into fiction. I think that's really cool.

Cut quarrels out of literature, and you will have very little history or drama or fiction or epic poetry left.

The essayist has to follow a certain intellectual pattern. The novelist has the advantage of using fantasy, of being subjective.

I am a fictionalizing philosopher, not a novelist.

I'm not nearly smart enough or imaginative enough to tackle the novel form. Never happen.