Thy only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die, John and Mary die, John and Mary die.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that the ultimate truth about life often involves the inevitability of death.
Margaret Atwood's quote reflects on the harsh reality that all narratives, regardless of their twists and turns, culminate in the same unavoidable conclusion: death. By repeating 'John and Mary die', she emphasizes the universality of mortality, suggesting that all lives, despite their complexities and achievements, ultimately lead to the same end. This repetition underscores the cyclical nature of human existence and the repetitive themes found in life stories.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the themes of life and mortality in literature.
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.
What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.
But I smiled, and smiling was easy, no matter how strange and disorienting the street seemed to be. I was a fugitive. I was a wanted man, a hunted man, with a price on my head. And I was still one step ahead of them. I was free. Every day, when you're on the run, is the whole of your life. Every free minute is a short story with a happy ending.
Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives.
Longevity, like intelligence and good looks and health and strength of character, is largely a matter of genetic heritage. Choose your parents with care.
Life is given only once, and one wants to live it boldly, with full conscious and beauty.
When I decided to be a singer, my mother warned me I'd be alone a lot. Basically we all are.
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