My major aim was to shape a book which would make its own comment, a wordless statement: to talk through the way… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
Women have an extraordinary ability to withdraw from the sexual relationship, to immunize themselves against it, in such a way that their… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
Perhaps it is not such a bad marriage after all? There are innumerable marriages where two people, both twisted and wrong in… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
You have to deduce a person's real feelings about a thing by a smile she does not know is on her face,… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
Some books are not read in the right way because they have skipped a stage of opinion, assume a crystallization of information… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
I think a writer's job is to provoke questions. I like to think that if someone's read a book of mine, they've… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
London has changed enormously and so have the English in the past decade. They're more like Americans and more like Europeans, too.… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
You know, whenever women make imaginary female kingdoms in literature, they are always very permissive, to use the jargon word, and easy… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
At last I understood that the way over, or through this dilemma, the unease at writing about 'petty personal problems' was to… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
If she had been left alone she would have gone on, in her own way, enjoying herself thoroughly, until people found one… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
I'm always astounded at the way we automatically look at what divides and separates us. We never look at what people have… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
Why were the Europeans bothered about the Soviet Union at all? It was nothing to do with us. China had nothing to… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
A foolhardy lot, we accepted it all, as we always do, never asked: "What is going to happen to us now, with… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
I write because I've always written, can't stop. I am a writing animal. The way a silk worm is a silk-producing animal. — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
I would not be at all surprised to find out . . . that the dimensions of buildings affect us in ways we don't guess. — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
I'm always astounded at the way we automatically look at what divides and separates us. We never look at what people have… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
...We try to have things both ways. We’ve always refused to live by the book and the rule; but then why start… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
Novels give you the matrix of emotions, give you the flavour of a time in a way formal history cannot. — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
I think a writer's job is to provoke questions. I like to think that if someone's read a book of mine, they've… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
You should write, first of all, to please yourself. You shouldn't care a damn about anybody else at all. But writing can't… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
Some books are not read in the right way because they have skipped a stage of opinion, assume a crystallization of information in society… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
“In the morning, when she wishes me to wake, she crouches on my chest, and pats my face with her paw. Or, if I… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
You know, whenever women make imaginary female kingdoms in literature, they are always very permissive, to use the jargon word, and easy and generous… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
There is only one real sin and that is to persuade oneself that the second best is anything but second best. — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
“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… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
I remember World War II when there were very few books, very little paper available. For me to walk into a shop or look… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
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… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
“While she strode rapidly through the ward to the door at the other end, she was able to see that every bed or cot… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
I do not think that marriage is one of my talents. I've been much happier unmarried than married. — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
What really fascinates me is this need that is so strong now that if you read a work of the imagination you instantly have… — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
“The charge that the United Nations are using bacteriological warfare in Korea cannot be dismissed merely because it would be insane.” — Doris Lessing Copy Share Image
