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
women love-is literature
A woman writer, quitting love before literature when love lets her down, will put literature before love.
falling-in-love fall ideas
A writer falls in love with an idea and gets carried away.
thinking lakes lovely
When you're young you think that you're going to sail into a lovely lake of quietude and peace. This is profoundly untrue.
love-is littles sometimes
So love is rest? The cosy corner? The little nook? Sometimes it ought to be. Sometimes it is.
art sex love-is
People don't mind immoral messages. They don't mind art which says that murder is good, cruelty is good, sex for sex's sake is good. They like it, provided the message is wrapped up a little. And they like messages saying that murder is bad, cruelty is bad, and love is love is love is love. What they can't stand is to be told it all doesn't matter, they can't stand formlessness.
love trust angel
Trust no friend without faults, and love a woman, but no angel.
winning giving lovely
It's lovely to have money to give away - that's the bonus of winning the Nobel.
love hero mankind
What is a hero without love for mankind.
love inspirational firsts
What's terrible is to pretend that second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.
capable english-writer love pretend quite terrible work
What's terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is first-rate, that you don't need love when you do or that you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.
oneself persuade sin
There is only one real sin, and that is to persuade oneself that the second-best is anything but the second-best
absolutely british countries empire european people
When I was a girl, the idea that the British Empire could ever end was absolutely inconceivable. And it just disappeared, like all the other empires. You know, when people talk about the British Empire, they always forget that all the European countries had empires.
hard life
I've worked hard all my life. You have to if you want to get things done.
atmosphere badly both brought child children damaged exactly mentally war
The World War I, I'm a child of World War I. And I really know about the children of war. Because both my parents were both badly damaged by the war. My father, physically, and both mentally and emotionally. So, I know exactly what it's like to be brought up in an atmosphere of a continual harping on the war.