“What is an activist? I’ve never really understood. Is it somebody who votes? It’s going to set you apart from a lot of the populace if you do…. There are also professional activists. That’s their job. They’re involved with an organization. They have an agenda. That’s their job. That’s fine. I’m not one of those people, although I’m frequently called upon to front this or that. And there’s a very good reason for that: I don’t have a job, so I can’t get fired. So people like me, who are freelancers, are often called upon for that reason. So you’re put in that position by the mere fact of having the freedom—which it is—not to be subject to the strictures of your place of employment.” - Margaret Atwood on being a political writer and an “activist,” a description she dismissed.I never knew who she was until my friends and I were visiting Buenos Aires and had come home from a rave at 8 am to find the only thing in English on TV was The Handmaid’s Tale starring Natasha Richardson, Robert Duvall, and Faye Dunaway. It was intense watching, and the best, most horrifyingly believable dystopia I’d ever seen.

(Source: capitalnewyork, via crocodileblackpelvis)