More from The Handmaid's Tale
- The more difficult it was to love the particular man beside us, the more we believed in Love, abstract and total.
- There was old sex in the room and loneliness, and expectation, of something without a shape or name. I remember that yearning, for something that was always about to happen and was never the same as the hands that were on us there and then.
- Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized. Then, later, they spring.
- Better not to invent her in her absence. Better to wait until she's actually here. Then he can make her up as she goes along.
- Farewells can be shattering, but returns are surely worse. Solid flesh can never live up to the blind shadow cast by its absence.
- If I were going to convert to any religion I would probably choose Catholicism because it at least has female saints and the Virgin Mary.
Last reviewed 2026-07-06