I think the novel is essentially a comic form (tragedy is for the theatre), not meaning by that full of jokes, but… — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
Philosophy! Empty thinking by ignorant conceited men who think they can digest without eating! — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
we are such inward secret creatures, that inwardness the most amazing thing about us, even more amazing than our reason. but we… — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
Of course reading and thinking are important but, my God, food is important too. — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
Of course reading and thinking are important but, my God, food is important too. How fortunate we are to be food-consuming animals.… — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
People have obsessions and fears and passions which they don't admit to. I think every character is interesting and has extremes. It's… — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
I think philosophy is extremely good training for anyone who wants to do anything. Although that is an idea which people may… — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
Falling out of love is chiefly a matter of forgetting how charming someone is. — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
One doesn't have to get anywhere in a marriage. It's not a public conveyance. — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
“I think being a woman is like being Irish... Everyone says you're important and nice, but you take second place all the time.” — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
Art is the final cunning of the human soul which would rather do anything than face the gods. — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
emotions really exist at the bottom of the personality or at the top. in the middle they are acted. this is why all the… — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
I have used the word "attention," which I borrow from Simone Weil, to express the idea of a just and loving gaze directed upon… — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
Starting a novel is opening a door on a misty landscape; you can still see very little but you can smell the earth and… — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
Art and morality are, with certain provisos…one. Their essence is the same. The essence of both of them is love. Love is the perception… — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
being homosexual doesn't determine a man's whole character any more than being heterosexual does. — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
All artists dream of a silence which they must enter, as some creatures return to the sea to spawn. — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
“Oh if only I could take my mother away and never know of these things again. But it was impossible, the machine would go… — Iris Murdoch Copy Share Image
