Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale

"Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations."

"Knowing was a temptation. What you don't know won't tempt you."

"Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it."

"It's impossible to say a thing exactly the way it was, because of what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out, there are too many parts, sides, crosscurrents, nuances; too many gestures, which could mean this or that, too many shapes which can never be fully described, too many flavors, in the air or on the tongue, half-colors, too many."

"Don't let the bastards grind you down."

"We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability?"

"One of the gravestones in the cemetery near the earliest church has an anchor on it and an hourglass, and the words In Hope.In Hope. Why did they put that above a dead person? Was it the corpse hoping, or those still alive?"

"One of the gravestones in the cemetery near the earliest church has an anchor on it and an hourglass, and the words In Hope.In Hope. Why did they put that above a dead person? Was it the corpse hoping, or those still alive?"

"Neither of us says the word love, not once. It would be tempting fate; it would be romance, bad luck."

"Fatigue is here, in my body, in my legs and eyes. That is what gets you in the end. Faith is only a word, embroidered."