So great was the noise during the day that I used to lie awake at night listening to silence. Muriel Spark More Quotes by Muriel Spark More Quotes From Muriel Spark I see no reason to keep silent about my enjoyment of the sound of my own voice as I work. Muriel Spark voicesoundquiet 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. Muriel Spark patternstryingart If I had my life over again I should form the habit of nightly composing myself to thoughts of death. I would practise, as it were, the remembrance of death. There is no other practice which so intensifies life. Death, when it approaches, ought not to take one by surprise. It should be part of the full expectancy of life. Without an ever-present sense of death life is insipid. Muriel Spark eggspracticedeath The true novelist is one who understands the work as a continuous poem, is a myth-maker, and the wonder of the art resides in the endless different ways of telling a story. Muriel Spark novelistsdifferentart A rebellion against a tyrant is only immoral when it hasn't got a chance. Muriel Spark tyrantsrevolutionchance 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. Muriel Spark twolyingpeople To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul. Muriel Spark great-educationsoulteacher everything happens to an artist; time is always redeemed, nothing is lost and wonders never cease. Muriel Spark artistwonderlost She wasn't a person to whom things happen. She did all the happenings. Muriel Spark happeningspersonshappens It is well, when in difficulties, to say never a word, neither black nor white. Speech is silver but silence is golden. Muriel Spark blacksilencewhite It is impossible to repent of love. The sin of love does not exist. Muriel Spark impossibledoelove If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat . . . Muriel Spark piecescatwriting If you're going to do a thing, you should do it thoroughly. If you're going to be a Christian, you may as well be a Catholic. Muriel Spark catholicchristianmay It is one of the secrets of Nature in its mood of mockery that fine weather lays heavier weight on the mind and hearts of the depressed and the inwardly tormented than does a really bad day with dark rain sniveling continuously and sympathetically from a dirty sky. Muriel Spark bad-dayraindirty Ridicule is the only honorable weapon we have left. Muriel Spark ridiculehonorableweapons One's prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full. Muriel Spark growing-upgirltime Contradictions in human character are one of its most consistent notes. Muriel Spark contradictionnotescharacter You look for one thing and you find another. Muriel Spark one-thinglooks Being in love is something like poetry. Certainly, you can analyze and expound its various senses and intentions, but there is always something left over, mysteriously hovering between music and meaning. Muriel Spark hoveringbeing-in-lovelove-is It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree, but smiles. Muriel Spark smiledoemen
