Muriel Spark
Muriel Spark
Dame Muriel Sarah Spark, DBE, CLit, FRSE, FRSL was a Scottish novelist. In 2008, the Times newspaper named Spark as No. 8 in its list of 'the 50 greatest British writers since 1945'...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth1 February 1918
rudeness euphemism frankness
Frankness is usually a euphemism for rudeness.
christian firsts pope
I wouldn't take the Pope too seriously. He's a Pole first, a pope second, and maybe a Christian third.
artist wonderful century
How wonderful it feels to be an artist and a woman in the twentieth century,
memorable boredom should
One should only see a psychiatrist out of boredom.
men way certain
The one certain way for a woman to hold a man is to leave him for religion.
lying two people
The letters of famous people can be placed into two categories: there is the type of letter which becomes itself a valuable contribution to literature through its wit, style or wisdom; another kind is that whose main importance lies in the provision of a background to their author's life. Especially in the correspondence of great writers and poets, these two factors are very often combined ...
art trying patterns
If you choose the sort of life which has no conventional pattern you have to try to make an art of it, or it is a mess.
lying night silence
So great was the noise during the day that I used to lie awake at night listening to silence.
jealousy giving affliction
Jealousy ... is an affliction of the spirit which, unlike some sins of the flesh, gives no one any pleasure.
funny humor laughing
We often laughed at others in our house, and I picked up the craft of being polite while people were present and laughing later if there was anything to laugh about.
laughter laughing people
I have a great desire to make people smile - not laugh. Laughter is too aggressive. People bare their teeth.
justice causes injustice
I was just as anxious to prevent injustice as to cause justice.
art philosophy science
Art and religion first; then philosophy; lastly science. That is the order of the great subjects of life, that's their order of importance.
mind facts fiction
Fiction to me is a kind of parable. You have got to make up your mind it's not true. Some kind of truth emerges from it, but it's not fact.