My brother and I were both good at science, and we were both good at English literature. Either one of us could have gone either way.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the versatility and shared talents of the speaker and their sibling in both science and literature.
Margaret Atwood reflects on the dual strengths that she and her brother shared in academic subjects like science and English literature, implying that both paths were equally accessible to them. This observation sheds light on the potential for individuals to excel in multiple disciplines, suggesting that one's interests and capabilities can span a wide range, rather than being confined to a single field or career choice.
In practice
Sharing this quote at a school assembly to encourage students to explore multiple subjects.
If I am good enough and quiet enough, perhaps after all they will let me go; but it’s not easy being quiet and good, it’s like hanging on to the edge of a bridge when you’ve already fallen over; you don’t seem to be moving, just dangling there, and yet it is taking all your strength.
I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off.
What else can I do? Once you've gone this far you aren't fit for anything else. Something happens to your mind. You're overqualified, overspecialized, and everybody knows it. Nobody in any other game would be crazy enough to hire me. I wouldn't even make a good ditch-digger, I'd start tearing apart the sewer-system, trying to pick-axe and unearth all those chthonic symbols - pipes, valves, cloacal conduits... No, no. I'll have to be a slave in the paper-mines for all time.
We love each other, that’s true whatever it means, but we aren’t good at it; for some it’s a talent, for others only an addiction.
I've learned quite a lot, over the years, by avoiding what I was supposed to be learning.
Knowing too much about other people puts you in their power, they have a claim on you, you are forced to understand their reasons for doing things and then you are weakened.
I'm kind of old-school and love nothing more than sitting, opening a book, and reading it. But I also love listening to audio books.
Here was one place where I could find out who I was and what I was going to become. And that was the public library.
Let every student enter the school with this advice. No matter how good the school is, his education is in his own hands. All education must be self education.
One of my great laments is that education today seems to have... be less about passion and more about process, more about tactic or technique.
Teaching that impacts is not head to head, but heart to heart.
The arts, sciences, humanities, physical education, languages and maths all have equal and central contributions to make to a student's education.
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