“Writing is not a job description. A great deal of it is luck. Don’t do it if you are not a gambler because a lot of people devote many years of their lives to it (for little reward). I think people become writers because they are compulsive wordsmiths.”
~ Margaret Atwood, b. 18 November 1939
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“Writing is not a job description. A great deal of it is luck. Don’t do it if you are not a gambler because a lot of people devote many years of their lives to it (for little reward). I think people become writers because they are compulsive wordsmiths.”
~ Margaret Atwood, b. 18 November 1939
pinterest.com/pin/39406565463153576/
“Writing is not a job description. A great deal of it is luck. Don’t do it if you are not a gambler because a lot of people devote many years of their lives to it (for little reward). I think people become writers because they are compulsive wordsmiths.”
~ Margaret Atwood, b. 18 November 1939
pinterest.com/pin/39406565463153576/
“Writing is not a job description. A great deal of it is luck. Don’t do it if you are not a gambler because a lot of people devote many years of their lives to it (for little reward). I think people become writers because they are compulsive wordsmiths.”
~ Margaret Atwood, b. 18 November 1939
pinterest.com/pin/39406565463153576/
“Writing is not a job description. A great deal of it is luck. Don’t do it if you are not a gambler because a lot of people devote many years of their lives to it (for little reward). I think people become writers because they are compulsive wordsmiths.”
~ Margaret Atwood, b. 18 November 1939
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/39406565463153576/
Margaret Atwood hasn’t spoken to me in 40 years (for that story, see here) but I haven’t held it against her. I’ve continued reading her books, like any Canadian bibliophile who hopes that someday she’ll receive a Nobel in recognition for her impressive body of work. Until then, let me add this positive review for one of her non-fiction books.
Moving Targets is a broad-ranging compilation of book reviews, critical essays, and reflections on the writing life. Amazingly enough, I found a signed first edition in my neighborhood bookstore, proving once again that the world is indeed small. But since we both live in Toronto, maybe someday she’ll see me on the street; hopefully I’ll see her first and dodge her car if she tries to run me over.
Reading Moving Targets reminded me once again what a magnificently erudite woman she is. It goes without saying that she knows Can Lit inside out, and in a number of essays and reviews pays homage to Canadian writers Margaret Laurence, Carol Shields and Mordecai Richler, plus many other lesser northern luminaries.
Her admiration also ranges from the crime fiction of Dashiell Hammett and Elmore Leonard to the speculative dystopias of Ursula Le Guin and George Orwell. And it doesn’t seem to matter whether she’s writing about dark fairy tales, modern literature or the folly of nations at war, she brings to every piece the focus of her wit and intelligence, like someone with a flashlight showing us where to find the best books in a vast unlighted library.
As I read this book I soon found myself infected by her own enthusiasm, and started a list of other authors I should read. And although I had not thought of it until now, she seems to me like a Professor of Zoology who could never be content to lecture from the podium. Rather, she must don her hiking boots and camouflage jacket, and lead her class into the woods to see first-hand the denizens inhabiting the vast forest of literature and, if one were so inclined, learn how to live among them.
As the book flap says, Moving Targets is an essential collection for Atwood fans everywhere.
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Alan Annand is a Canadian astrologer and writer of crime fiction.
“Writing is not a job description. A great deal of it is luck. Don’t do it if you are not a gambler because a lot of people devote many years of their lives to it (for little reward). I think people become writers because they are compulsive wordsmiths.”
~ Margaret Atwood, b. 18 November 1939
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“I wish you good writing and good luck. Even if you’ve already done the good writing, you’ll still need the good luck. It’s a shark-filled lagoon out there. Cross your fingers and watch your back.”
~ MARGARET ATWOOD
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“Writing is not a job description. A great deal of it is luck. Don’t do it if you are not a gambler because a lot of people devote many years of their lives to it (for little reward). I think people become writers because they are compulsive wordsmiths.”
~ MARGARET ATWOOD
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