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Doris Lessing Quotes
Doris Lessing Quotes
Doris Lessing
English
Writer
Born:
Oct 22
,
1919
Died:
Nov 17
,
2013
Always
Me
People
Think
World
You
Related authors:
Arthur C. Clarke
D. H. Lawrence
Douglas Adams
Gilbert K. Chesterton
John Ruskin
Ricky Gervais
Rudyard Kipling
Thomas Paine
Things are not quite so simple always as black and white.
Doris Lessing
Simple
Black
Black And White
White
Always
Quite
Things
The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion.
Doris Lessing
Great
You
Change
Age
People
Old
Confusion
Changed
Changes
Secret
Seventy
Share
Great Secret
Course
Causes
Years
Eighty
Really
Old People
Body
Your
Your Body
Small things amuse small minds.
Doris Lessing
Small Things
Small Minds
Minds
Small
Things
Amuse
Borrowing is not much better than begging; just as lending with interest is not much better than stealing.
Doris Lessing
Better
Borrowing
Stealing
Begging
Than
Just
Interest
Lending
Much
Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so.
Doris Lessing
Opportunity
Will
Hundred
Given
Simply
Talents
Blossom
Unexpected
Any
Human
Being
Anywhere
Capacities
Trust no friend without faults, and love a woman, but no angel.
Doris Lessing
Love
Woman
Trust
Angel
Faults
Without
Friend
I do not think that marriage is one of my talents. I've been much happier unmarried than married.
Doris Lessing
Marriage
Think
Unmarried
Married
Talents
Been
Than
Happier
Much
You know, 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.
Doris Lessing
You
Girl
Other
Could
Absolutely
Disappeared
Idea
Empire
Empires
Like
Know
End
Just
Ever
Inconceivable
British
British Empire
What is a hero without love for mankind.
Doris Lessing
Love
Hero
Without
Mankind
In university they don't tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools.
Doris Lessing
You
Learning
Law
Fools
Tell
Part
Greater
Tolerate
University
I'm sure that everybody feels a kind of permanent anguish about what's going on in the world.
Doris Lessing
World
Everybody
Kind
About
Anguish
Feels
Sure
Permanent
Going
Some people obtain fame, others deserve it.
Doris Lessing
People
Some People
Others
Some
Obtain
Fame
Deserve
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 had - I don't know what - the literary equivalent of a shower. Something that would start them thinking in a slightly different way, perhaps. That's what I think writers are for.
Doris Lessing
Book
Job
Think
Thinking
Mine
Way
Slightly
Would
Someone
Something
Writer
Writers
Had
Like
Perhaps
Know
Read
Equivalent
Questions
Provoke
Different
Literary
Them
Shower
Different Way
Start
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.
Doris Lessing
Work
Love
You
Better
Second-Rate
Pretend
Like
Know
Well
Terrible
First-Rate
Quite
Capable
Your
Need
When I became political and Communist, it was because they were the only people I had ever met who fought the color bar in their lives.
Doris Lessing
People
Political
Met
Only
Color
Had
Became
Because
Were
Bar
Communist
Who
Fought
Ever
Lives
What society doesn't realize is that in the past, ordinary people respected learning. They respected books, and they don't now, or not very much. That whole respect for serious literature and learning has disappeared.
Doris Lessing
Respect
Learning
People
Past
Society
Books
Respected
Disappeared
Very
In The Past
Ordinary
Literature
Ordinary People
Realize
Much
Whole
Serious
Now
You know, looking at it objectively, I've written one or two good books.
Doris Lessing
Good
You
Looking
Books
One Or Two
Objectively
Written
Know
Two
I'm not one of those writers that sits worrying about posthumous fame.
Doris Lessing
Worrying
Those
About
Writers
Fame
When young I did my best to undo that bit of the British Empire I found myself in: that is, old Southern Rhodesia.
Doris Lessing
Best
Myself
Old
Young
Bit
Empire
Undo
Southern
Did
Found
British
British Empire
I was writing all my childhood. And I wrote two novels when I was 17, which were terrible. And I'm not sorry I threw them out. So, I wrote. I had to write. You know, the thing was, I had no education.
Doris Lessing
Education
You
Writing
Sorry
Out
Threw
Write
Had
Know
Wrote
Terrible
Were
Childhood
Which
Them
Novels
Thing
Two
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.
Doris Lessing
War
World
Father
Parents
Exactly
Exactly What
Atmosphere
Brought
About
Physically
Both
Mentally
Both My Parents
Emotionally
Badly
Like
Know
Because
Were
Up
Child
Children
Really
World War
Damaged
World War I
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.
Doris Lessing
You
People
Girl
Other
About
Could
Absolutely
Had
Disappeared
Idea
Countries
Empire
Empires
Like
Know
Talk
Always
End
Forget
Just
European
European Countries
Ever
Inconceivable
British
British Empire
It is very enjoyable, writing a story. You get this idea. It takes hold of you. And then you spend day and night thinking about how to do it. And then you do it. And much later, you think, 'Oh, yes. That's an interesting question.'
Doris Lessing
Day
You
Writing
Think
Thinking
Spend
Later
About
Day And Night
Takes
Idea
How
Question
Yes
Very
Get
Oh
Hold
Story
Interesting
Then
Much
Enjoyable
Night
You should write, first of all, to please yourself. You shouldn't care a damn about anybody else at all. But writing can't be a way of life; the important part of writing is living. You have to live in such a way that your writing emerges from it.
Doris Lessing
Life
You
Yourself
Writing
Care
First
Important
Live
Living
Damn
Else
Please
Way
About
Emerges
Write
Part
First Of All
Important Part
Anybody
Anybody Else
Should
Your
Such A Way
It's amazing what you find out about yourself when you write in the first person about someone very different from you.
Doris Lessing
You
Yourself
Amazing
First
Out
Find
About
Someone
Write
First-Person
Very
Person
Different
When you're young you think that you're going to sail into a lovely lake of quietude and peace. This is profoundly untrue.
Doris Lessing
You
Peace
Sail
Young
Think
Untrue
Going
Lake
Lovely
Profoundly
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