On writing & housework

Ever since the early 1970s when she was asked how she coped with being a novelist and doing the housework ("I would say, look under the sofa"), she has been aggressively indifferent to criticism. "So I'm told," she says coolly on the question of whether greater visibility increases the impact of failure. She will write what she wants, and that's all there is to it. - Margaret Atwood: 'I have a big following among the biogeeks. "Finally! Someone understands us!"'