Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing
Doris May Lessing CHwas a British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, the sequence of five novels collectively called Children of Violence, The Golden Notebook, The Good Terrorist, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos: Archives...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth22 October 1919
book writing criticism
And it does no harm to repeat, as often as you can, 'Without me the literary industry would not exist: the publishers, the agents, the sub-agents, the sub-sub-agents, the accountants, the libel lawyers, the departments of literature, the professors, the theses, the books of criticism, the reviewers, the book pages- all this vast and proliferating edifice is because of this small, patronized, put-down and underpaid person.'
kissing people secret
The older I get the more secrets I have, never to be revealed and this, I know, is a common condition of people my age. and why all this emphasis on kissing and telling? Kisses are the least of it.
people magic wavelength
I am so happy to be communicating with people on this newest of new wavelengths which to some older people must seem like a kind of magic.
solitude treasure contact
I treasure solitude. One doesn't have to have human contact.
moving aging wonderful
And then, not expecting it, you become middle-aged and anonymous. No one notices you. You achieve a wonderful freedom. It is a positive thing. You can move about, unnoticed and invisible.
funny writing thinking
Sometimes I think what I write is funny in its quiet way.
stupid fighting intelligent
It has become a kind of religion that you can't criticise because then you become a traitor to the great cause, which I am not. It is time we began to ask who are these women who continually rubbish men. The most stupid, ill-educated and nasty woman can rubbish the nicest, kindest and most intelligent man and no one protests ... Men seem to be so cowed that they can't fight back, and it is time they did.
dream fantasy ifs
... if you have nothing, you are free to choose among dreams and fantasies.
running thinking long
The human community is evolving... . We can survive anything you care to mention. We are supremely equipped to survive, to adapt and even in the long run to start thinking.
thinking san-francisco needs
I don't think San Francisco needs defending. I never meet anyone who doesn't love the place, Americans or others.
months october unendurable
What of October, that ambiguous month, the month of tension, the unendurable month?
two feminism machines
The freedom of women was achieved by two things: One, the Pill. Two... by labour-saving devices like the washing machine. By science, not feminism.
differences tolerate uniqueness
We, as a society, can't tolerate very much difference.
cat mean kitten
Cats mean kittens, plentiful and frequent.