Margaret Atwood Says She’s Not Afraid of Death in New Interview [Video]

Margaret Atwood does not fear the great unknown.

The acclaimed novelist and poet, 84, was a guest on NPR’s Wild Card with Rachel Martin podcast on Oct. 3. On the show, Martin invites guests to play a card game and answer existential questions. Atwood, who was promoting her new poetry collection, Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems: 1961-2023, was asked how her feelings on death have changed over time.

“I’m not afraid of death, death, deathity, death, death,” Atwood said. “What comes before can be very unpleasant. I know people who’ve had horrible hospital and disease experiences. I know people who have ended up in care homes, not knowing who they were, things like that. That’s what you are worried, what I, anyway, am worried about rather than, quote, ‘being dead.’ I’m not too worried about being dead.”