True Stories Quotes

“Screw poetry, it's you I want,
your taste, rain
on you, mouth on your skin.”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“This world is not enough, but it will have to do. You can either hold on or let go.”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“In this country you can say what you like
because no one will listen to you anyway”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“Mouth to mouth
I'm bringing you back to life.
Why did you drown like that
without telling?
What numbed you? What
rose over your head
was gradual and only
everybody's air,
standard & killing.
Your head floats on your hand,
on water, you turn
over, your heart returns
unsteadily to its two strong notes.
I'm bringing you back
to life, it's mutual.”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“She is dying because she said.
She is dying for the sake of the word.
It is her body, silent
and fingerless, writing this poem.”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“Attack, voracious
eating, and flight:
it’s a sound routine
for staying alive on edges.”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“Time comes in waves here, a sickness, one
day after the other rolling on;
I move up, it’s called
awake, then down into the uneasy
nights but never
forward.”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“at this distance
you’re a mirage, a glossy image
fixed in the posture
of the last time I saw you.
Turn you over, there’s a place
for the address. Wish you were
here.”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“a flayed body untangled
string by string and hung
to the wall, an agonized banner
displayed for the same reason
flags are.”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“Love comes
in waves like the ocean, a sickness which goes on
& on, a hollow cave
in the head, filling & pounding,”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“A universe that includes you
cant be all bad, but
does it? at this distance
you’re a mirage,”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“Nothing’s
broken, nevertheless I’m skinless,
the gentlest touch would gut me.”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“Is this really your fate,
to enter poetry and become transparent?”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“Who invented the word love?”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“I should throw my gold watch
into the ocean and become
timeless.”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories

“A lie, that we come from water.
The truth is we were born
from stones, dragons, the sea’s
teeth,”
― Margaret Atwood, True Stories