Q When did you start writing? How did you know you wanted to be an author?
A. I started writing when I was seven. I wrote a story about an ant. Then, I moved to comics. Next, I stopped writing and started painting more. I was more visual for a while. I wanted to be an artist first and then a designer. Then, I wanted to be a biologist. I was good at that. All of a sudden, I went back to writing and that was more fun than anything. So I announced that I was going to be a writer much to everyone’s dismay. My  family thought I wouldn’t be able to earn a living. My mother said to be able to write you need to know how to spell and I told her other people would do that for me. I started writing in college magazines and small literary magazines. I wrote my first novel when I was 23. It didn’t get published. A publisher told me they were interested but only if I could change the ending. I refused. It was ahead of its time. The heroine was wondering whether to push the leading man off the ledge. In the 1960s, they weren’t ready for that. The second novel I wrote got published. It was The Edible Woman. At that time, I also won a top literary award in Canada for a poem I had written. Top because there was only one literary award that time. I borrowed my friend’s dress to attend the ceremony because I didn't have one. My roommates burnt my hush puppies because they thought I wasn’t snazzy enough.

Margaret Atwood