Quotes by Doris Lessing

“Trust no friend without faults, and love a woman, but no angel.”

“Over the plains of Ethiopia the sun rose as I had not seen it in seven years. A big, cool, empty sky flushed a little above a rim of dark mountains. The landscape 20,000 feet below gathered itself ...”

“THE LILIESThis morning it was, on the pavement, When that smell hit me again And set the houses reeling. People passed like rain: (The way rain moves and advances over the hills) And it was hot, ho...”

“I dont want to be told when I wake up, terrified by a dream of total annihilation, because of the H-bomb exploding, that people felt that way about the cross-bow. It isnt true. There is something n...”

“As I was saying, thats the dark secret of our time, no one mentions it, but every time one opens a door one is greeted by a shrill, desperate and inaudible scream.”

“I was realizing something I should have known by using my intelligence, without ever having gone to their flat at all: that the ties between Nelson and his wife are bitterly close, and never to be ...”

“But it isnt only the terror everywhere, and the fear of being conscious of it, that freezes people. Its more than that. People know they are in a society dead or dying. They are refusing emotion be...”

“she was wishing that whatever stage of her life she was in now could be got through quickly, for it was seeing to her interminable. If life had to be looked at in terms of high moments. or peaks, t...”

“What a luxury a cat is, the moments of shocking and startling pleasure in a day, the feel of the beast, the soft sleekness under your palm, the warmth when you wake on a cold night, the grace and c...”

“Listen Anna, if we dont believe the things we put on our agendas will come true for us, then theres no hope for us. Were going to be saved by what we seriously put on our agendas.”

“There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth.”

“With a library you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one - but no one at all - can tell you what to read and when and how.”

“Free women," said Anna, wryly. She added, with an anger new to Molly, so that she earned another quick scrutinizing glance from her friend: "They still define us in terms of relationships with men,...”

“Im not going to be like my mother. Youre maniacs. Youre mad."Yes, said Kate. I know it. And so you wont be. The best of luck to you. And what are you going to be instead?”

“Younger woman says, Im not going to be like my mother. Youre maniacs. Youre mad.Yes, [older woman responds] I know it. And so you wont be. The best of luck to you. And what are you going to be inst...”

“Oh, I simply cant think. When I really want to depress myself, I think of all the brilliant men I know, married to their stupid wives. Enough to break your heart, it really is”

“We stood, separated by space, certainly, in identical conditions of pleasant uncertainty and anticipation, and we both held our heart in our hands, all pink and palpitating and ready for pleasure a...”

“Women often get dropped from memory, and then history.”

“Novels give you the matrix of emotions, give you the flavour of a time in a way formal history cannot.”

“Sometimes I think the one form of experience people are incapable of learning from is the political experience.”