The Handmaid's Tale

Book · 5 characters · 513 quotes · 1985

Quotes from The Handmaid's Tale

O
"Women are communicative, we are trained for that"
Offred Relationships
O
"Fear tastes like metal"
Offred Fear
M
"Pen is envy, penis is envy"
Moira Power
O
"Love is what I want, not what is given"
Offred Love
O
"The real problem is we had no better options"
Offred Philosophy
O
"I am not a doll, I am not a doll"
Offred Strength
O
"I used to think of my body as an instrument of my pleasure"
Offred Freedom
S
"Waste not want not"
Serena Joy Work
O
"Context is everything"
Offred Wisdom
O
"The night is mine, my own time"
Offred Solitude
O
"I want to be valued, to be worth something"
Offred
J
"Freedom is a hard thing to know what to do with"
Janine Freedom
O
"I am not her nor am I you. I am a walking womb, but I am not the womb"
Offred
O
"We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print"
Offred Truth
O
"Better never means better for everyone, it always means worse, for some"
Offred Politics
O
"Hope is a risk."
Offred Hope
T
"The system requires my participation."
The Commander
O
"Telling stories is a way of having power."
Offred Literature
O
"I must keep myself in readiness."
Offred
O
"My name is not Offred."
Offred
O
"I could not leave the room."
Offred
S
"Beauty requires cruelty."
Serena Joy Beauty
O
"The day stretches ahead, moment by moment."
Offred Time
O
"I pin my hair to my head."
Offred
O
"Love, I would have said, but what did I know?"
Offred Love
O
"Who shall I suppose I am?"
Offred
O
"I am not a creature of the state."
Offred
T
"You can't build a sustainable economy on human suffering."
The Commander
O
"I wait in the chair."
Offred Patience
O
"Everything I value is tied to freedom."
Offred Freedom