Muriel Spark

Beware the ire of the calm.

— Muriel Spark

“Never apologise, never explain.”

— Muriel Spark

Beware of men bearing flowers.

— Muriel Spark

“Remember you must die.”

— Muriel Spark

I'm old-fashioned beyond my years.

— Muriel Spark

“pisseur de copie”

— Muriel Spark

“O where shall I find a virtuous woman, for her price is above rubies.”

— Muriel Spark

Neurotics are awfully quick to notice other people's mentalities.

— Muriel Spark

Parents learn a lot from their children about coping with life.

— Muriel Spark

She wasn't a person to whom things happen. She did all the happenings.

— Muriel Spark

It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree, but smiles.

— Muriel Spark

Every communist has a fascist frown, every fascist a communist smile.

— Muriel Spark

“A work of art is like living people.”

— Muriel Spark

You look for one thing and you find another.

— Muriel Spark

Final perseverance is the doctrine that wins the eternal victory in small things as in great

— Muriel Spark

I used to think it a pity that her mother rather than she had not thought of birth control.

— Muriel Spark

If you're going to do a thing, you should do it thoroughly. If you're going to be a Christian, you may as…

— Muriel Spark

So great was the noise during the day that I used to lie awake at night listening to silence.

— Muriel Spark

If you choose the sort of life which has no conventional pattern you have to try to make an art of it,…

— Muriel Spark

I see no reason to keep silent about my enjoyment of the sound of my own voice as I work.

— Muriel Spark

These years are still the years of my prime. It is important to recognise the years of one's prime, always remember that.

— Muriel Spark

I have a great desire to make people smile - not laugh. Laughter is too aggressive. People bare their teeth.

— Muriel Spark

No mind should submit their mind to another mind He that complies against his will is of his own opinion still --…

— Muriel Spark

Being in love is something like poetry. Certainly, you can analyze and expound its various senses and intentions, but there is always…

— Muriel Spark

People who quoted the Scriptures in criticism of others were terrible bores and usually they misapplied the text. One could prove anything…

— Muriel Spark

“There were legions of her kind during the nineteen-thirties, women from the age of thirty and upward, who crowded into their war-bereaved…

— Muriel Spark

It isn't necessarily the great and famous beauty spots we fall in love with. As with people, so with places. Love is…

— Muriel Spark

“You can lie awake at night and think; the quality of insomnia depends entirely on what you decide to think of. Can…

— Muriel Spark

“It was a gusty day, and from the windows of Caroline's top-floor flat, only the sky was visible with its little hurrying…

— Muriel Spark

To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul. To Miss Mackay it is a…

— Muriel Spark

“People who want to write books do so because they feel it to be the easiest thing they can do. They can…

— Muriel Spark

“They are demanding equal rights with us,’ says Mrs. Fiedke. ‘That’s why I never vote with the Liberals. Perfume, jewellery, hair down…

— Muriel Spark

“Her lips are slightly parted: she, whose lips are usually pressed together with the daily disapprovals of the accountants' office where she…

— Muriel Spark

If I had my life over again I should form the habit of nightly composing myself to thoughts of death. I would…

— Muriel Spark

If I had my life over again I should form the habit of nightly composing myself to thoughts of death. I would…

— Muriel Spark

The letters of famous people can be placed into two categories: there is the type of letter which becomes itself a valuable…

— Muriel Spark

“If I had my life to live over again, I would form the habit of nightly composing myself to thoughts of death.…

— Muriel Spark

[My novel] took up the sweetest part of my mind and the rarest part of my imagination; it was like being in…

— Muriel Spark

Looking forward to going home, I was necessarily looking backward.

— Muriel Spark

Contradictions in human character are one of its most consistent notes.

— Muriel Spark