--- title: "2 Bad temper Quotes By Doris Lessing" description: "2 Bad temper quotes by Doris Lessing. Plus more from Doris Lessing and more Bad temper sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/880/doris-lessing-501_bad-temper_michael-takes-me-from-behind-half-asleep_1445224.jpg" --- > [“Michael takes me from behind, half asleep, fierce and close. He is taking me impersonally, and so I do not respond as I do when he is loving Anna. And besides with one half of my mind I am thinking…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/michael-takes-me-from-behind-half-asleep-fierce-and-close-he-is/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/880/doris-lessing-501_bad-temper_michael-takes-me-from-behind-half-asleep_1445224.jpg) > [“Before Anna’s eyes she changed from a little girl into a sombre woman. She sat staring: serious, ironical. “Don’t you see, I’ve got to think it’s funny?” “Yes, I do.” “It happened all at once, at breakfast one morning. Richard’s…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/before-anna-s-eyes-she-changed-from-a-little-girl-into-a-sombre-woman/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb3/doris-lessing-501_bad-temper_before-anna-s-eyes-she-changed-from-a-li_2973913.jpg) ## More by Doris Lessing > [Some books are not read in the right way because they have skipped a stage of opinion, assume a crystallization of information in society…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/some-books-are-not-read-in-the-right-way-because-they-have-skipped-a/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [“In the morning, when she wishes me to wake, she crouches on my chest, and pats my face with her paw. Or, if I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/in-the-morning-when-she-wishes-me-to-wake-she-crouches-on-my-chest/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [You know, whenever women make imaginary female kingdoms in literature, they are always very permissive, to use the jargon word, and easy and generous…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/you-know-whenever-women-make-imaginary-female-kingdoms-in-literature/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [There is only one real sin and that is to persuade oneself that the second best is anything but second best.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/there-is-only-one-real-sin-and-that-is-to-persuade-oneself-that-the/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [“She was using the water as she had used the fruit earlier—to calm herself, to assure herself of the possibility of normality. Yet all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/she-was-using-the-water-as-she-had-used-the-fruit-earlier-to-calm/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [I remember World War II when there were very few books, very little paper available. For me to walk into a shop or look…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/i-remember-world-war-ii-when-there-were-very-few-books-very-little/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [They can't give a Nobel to someone who's dead so I think they were probably thinking they had better give it to me now…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/they-can-t-give-a-nobel-to-someone-who-s-dead-so-i-think-they-were/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [“While she strode rapidly through the ward to the door at the other end, she was able to see that every bed or cot…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/while-she-strode-rapidly-through-the-ward-to-the-door-at-the-other/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [I do not think that marriage is one of my talents. I've been much happier unmarried than married.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/i-do-not-think-that-marriage-is-one-of-my-talents-i-ve-been-much/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [I haven't got the energy to write now.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/i-haven-t-got-the-energy-to-write-now/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [What really fascinates me is this need that is so strong now that if you read a work of the imagination you instantly have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/what-really-fascinates-me-is-this-need-that-is-so-strong-now-that-if/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [“The charge that the United Nations are using bacteriological warfare in Korea cannot be dismissed merely because it would be insane.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/the-charge-that-the-united-nations-are-using-bacteriological-warfare/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [What I did have, which others perhaps didn't, was a capacity for sticking at it, which really is the point, not the talent at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/what-i-did-have-which-others-perhaps-didn-t-was-a-capacity-for/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [The human community is evolving... . We can survive anything you care to mention. We are supremely equipped to survive, to adapt and even…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/the-human-community-is-evolving-we-can-survive-anything-you-care-to/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [So love is rest? The cosy corner? The little nook? Sometimes it ought to be. Sometimes it is.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/so-love-is-rest-the-cosy-corner-the-little-nook-sometimes-it-ought-to/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bad-temper/doris-lessing/#itemlist", "name": "2 Bad temper Quotes By Doris Lessing", "numberOfItems": 2, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Michael takes me from behind, half asleep, fierce and close. He is taking me impersonally, and so I do not respond as I do when he is loving Anna. And besides with one half of my mind I am thinking how, if I hear Janet’s soft feet outside, I must be up and across the room to stop her coming in. She never comes in until seven; that is the rule; I do not expect her to come in; yet I have to be alert. While Michael grips me and fills me the noises next door continue, and I know he hears them too, and that part of the pleasure, for him, is to take me in hazard; that Janet, the little girl, the eight-year-old, represents for him partly women—other women, whom he betrays to sleep with me; and partly, child; the essence of child, against whom he is asserting his rights to live. He never speaks of his own children without a small, half-affectionate, half-aggressive laugh—his heirs, and his assassins. My child, a few feet away through the wall, he will not allow to cheat him of his freedom. When we are finished, he says: “And now, Anna, I suppose you are going to desert me for Janet?” And he sounds like a child who feels himself slighted for a younger brother or sister. I laugh and kiss him; although the resentment is suddenly so strong I clench my teeth against it. I control it, as always, by thinking: If I were a man I’d be the same. The control and discipline of being a mother came so hard to me, that I can’t delude myself that if I’d been a man, and not forced into self-control, I’d have been any different. And yet for the few moments it takes for me to put on the wrap to go into Janet, the resentment is like a raging poison. Before I go in to Janet I wash myself quickly between the legs so that the smell of sex may not disturb her, even though she doesn’t yet know what it is. I like the smell, and hate to wash it off so quickly; and the fact that I must adds to my bad temper.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Doris Lessing" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/michael-takes-me-from-behind-half-asleep-fierce-and-close-he-is/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/880/doris-lessing-501_bad-temper_michael-takes-me-from-behind-half-asleep_1445224.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/880/doris-lessing-501_bad-temper_michael-takes-me-from-behind-half-asleep_1445224.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/880/doris-lessing-501_bad-temper_michael-takes-me-from-behind-half-asleep_1445224.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Michael takes me from behind, half asleep, fierce and close. He is taking me impersonally, and so I do not…” — Doris Lessing", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Before Anna’s eyes she changed from a little girl into a sombre woman. She sat staring: serious, ironical. “Don’t you see, I’ve got to think it’s funny?” “Yes, I do.” “It happened all at once, at breakfast one morning. Richard’s always been horrid at breakfast. He’s always bad tempered and he nags at me. But the funny thing is, why did I let him? And he was going on and on, nagging away about me seeing Tommy so much. And suddenly, it was like a sort of revelation. It really was, Anna. He was sort of bouncing up and down the breakfast room. And his face was red. And he was so bad tempered. And I was listening to his voice. He’s got an ugly voice, hasn’t he? It’s a bully’s voice, isn’t it?” “Yes, it is.” “And I thought—Anna I wish I could explain it. It was really a revelation. I thought: I’ve been married to him for years and years, and all that time I’ve been—wrapped up in him. Well women are, aren’t they? I’ve thought of nothing else. I’ve cried myself to sleep night after night for years. And I’ve made scenes, and been a fool and been unhappy and…The point is, what for? I’m serious Anna.” Anna smiled, and Marion went on: “Because the point is, he’s not anything, is he? He’s not even very good-looking. He’s not even very intelligent—I don’t care if he is ever so important and a captain of industry. Do you see what I mean?” “Well, and then?” “I thought, My God, for that creature I’ve ruined my life. I remember the moment exactly. I was sitting at the breakfast-table, wearing a sort of negligee thing I’d bought because he likes me in that sort of thing—you know, frills and flowers, or well, he used to like me in them. I’ve always hated them. And I thought, for years and years I’ve even been wearing clothes I hated, just to please this creature.” Anna laughed. Marion was laughing, her handsome face alive with self-critical irony, and her eyes sad and truthful. “It’s humiliating, isn’t it Anna?” “Yes, it is.” “But I bet you’ve never made a fool of yourself about any stupid man. You’ve got too much sense.” “That’s what you think,” said Anna drily. But she saw this was a mistake; it was necessary for Marion to see her, Anna, as self-sufficient, and non-vulnerable. Marion, not hearing what Anna had said, insisted: “No, you’ve got too much sense, and that’s why I admire you.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Doris Lessing" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/before-anna-s-eyes-she-changed-from-a-little-girl-into-a-sombre-woman/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb3/doris-lessing-501_bad-temper_before-anna-s-eyes-she-changed-from-a-li_2973913.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb3/doris-lessing-501_bad-temper_before-anna-s-eyes-she-changed-from-a-li_2973913.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb3/doris-lessing-501_bad-temper_before-anna-s-eyes-she-changed-from-a-li_2973913.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Before Anna’s eyes she changed from a little girl into a sombre woman. 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