I've always disliked words like inspiration. Writing is probably like a scientist thinking about some scientific problem, or an engineer about an engineering problem. Doris Lessing More Quotes by Doris Lessing More Quotes From Doris Lessing You have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer. Doris Lessing creative-writerscreative-writinggiving-up It's amazing what you find out about yourself when you write in the first person about someone very different from you. Doris Lessing differentwritingfirsts We use our parents like recurring dreams, to be entered into when needed. Doris Lessing parentusedream Does political correctness have a good side? Yes, it does, for it makes us re-examine attitudes, and that is always useful. The trouble is that, with all popular movements, the lunatic fringe so quickly ceases to be a fringe; the tail begins to wag the dog. For every woman or man who is quietly and sensibly using the idea to examine our assumptions, there are twenty rabble-rousers whose real motive is desire for power over others. The fact that they see themselves as antiracists or feminists or whatever does not make them any less rabble-rousers. Doris Lessing realdogattitude I find myself increasingly shocked at the unthinking and automatic rubbishing of men which is now so part of our culture that it is hardly even noticed. Doris Lessing shockedmenculture All one's life as a young woman one is on show, a focus of attention, people notice you. You set yourself up to being noticed and admired. And then, not expecting it, you become middle-aged and anonymous. Doris Lessing womenfocuspeople I am interested only in stretching myself, on living as fully as I can. Doris Lessing stretchingi-can I'm always astounded at the way we automatically look at what divides and separates us. We never look at what people have in common. If you see it, black and white people, both sides look to see the differences, they don't look at what they have together. Men and women, and old and young, and so on. And this is a disease of the mind, the way I see it. Because in actual fact, men and women have much more in common than they are separated. Doris Lessing black-and-whitedifferencesmen In times of war, as everyone knows, who has lived through one, or talked to soldiers when they are allowing themselves to remember the truth, and not the sentimentalities with which we all shield ourselves from the horrors of which we are capable ... in times of war we revert, as a species, to the past, and are permitted to be brutal and cruel. It is for this reason, and of course others, that a great many people enjoy war. But this is one of the facts about war that is not often talked about. Doris Lessing warpeoplepast They can't give a Nobel to someone who's dead so I think they were probably thinking they had better give it to me now. Doris Lessing nobelgivingthinking We always seem to be surprised by events, especially by catastrophes, but also by wonderful events. Look at 1990, the year that the Soviet Union collapsed and apartheid in South Africa collapsed and the Berlin Wall came down. I don't know anyone who foresaw those events. It seems to me that as a species we are constantly trying to adapt ourselves to the unexpected. In the meantime, we talk as if we are in control, and we're not. This seems to me to be the truth about the twentieth century. Doris Lessing unexpectedwalltrying What is charm then? The free giving of a grace, the spending of something given by nature in her role of spendthrift ... something extra, superfluous, unnecessary, essentially a power thrown away. Doris Lessing rolesgracegiving 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 lovelylakesthinking Time and distance from the first and second world wars doesn't seem to lessen their horrors. Doris Lessing distancewarworld 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. Doris Lessing intelligentfightingstupid Capable people do not understand incapacity; clever people do not understand stupidity. Doris Lessing stupiditycleverpeople We, as a society, can't tolerate very much difference. Doris Lessing tolerateuniquenessdifferences Political correctness is the natural continuum from the party line. What we are seeing once again is a self-appointed group of vigilantes imposing their views on others. It is a heritage of communism, but they don't seem to see this. Doris Lessing partyselfviews All I do is give interviews and spend time being photographed. Doris Lessing spend-timeinterviewsgiving We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always known. Doris Lessing fightingtruthstupid
