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Quote by Doris Lessing

“I lived in a brilliantly lit haze, shifting and flickering according to my changing desires. Of course, that is only a description of being young.”

Quote by Doris Lessing

Book:The Golden Notebook

Work

The Golden Notebook

The Golden Notebook is a seminal work of modern literature, weaving together the personal and political narratives of a woman writer as she grapples with her own identity and the tumultuous events of the 20th century. more

Author

Doris Lessing was a British novelist known for her profound psychological insights and critical exploration of social and political issues. Her works covered a wide range of themes from personal experiences to global concerns, including colonialism, gender roles, and women's liberation. Lessing's writing style is unique and vivid, and she has had a significant impact on postcolonial and feminist literature. more

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“No one's noticed. So much is destroyed, we can't be bothered.”

Destroyed Bothered

Book:A Home for the Highland Cattle and the Antheap

Source: A Home for the Highland Cattle and the Antheap

“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. This is what our function is.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Way Book Different Jobs Mines Function Different Ways Provoking Showers

Author:Doris Lessing

“It is not always possible to know, when you make a note of an event, or a state of mind, how this may strike someone perhaps ten thousand years later.”

Knows Years Mind May States Events Thousand Ten Notes Strikes State Of Mind Thousand Years

Book:Shikasta (Canopus in Argos: Archives Series, Book 1)

Source: Shikasta (Canopus in Argos: Archives Series, Book 1)

“I think people are always looking for gurus. It's the easiest thing in the world to become a guru. It's quite terrifying. I once saw something fascinating here in New York. It must have been in the early seventies--guru time. A man used to go and sit in Central Park, wearing elaborate golden robes. He never once opened his mouth, he just sat. He'd appear at lunchtime. People appeared from everywhere, because he was obviously a holy man, and this went on for months. They just sat around him in reverent silence. Eventually he got fed up with it and left. Yes. It's as easy as that.”

People Thinking Men World Has Beens Used Left Easy Silence Saws New York Months Holy Mouths Golden Sat Parks Fascinating Feds Seventies Guru Robes Fed Up Holy Man Central Park Lunchtime

Author:Doris Lessing

“Most novels, if they are successful at all, are original in the sense that they report the existence of an area of society, a type of person, not yet admitted to the general literate consciousness.”

Ifs Persons Existence Consciousness Novel Successful Type Areas Originals Reports

Book:The Golden Notebook

Source: The Golden Notebook

“We are several people fitted inside each other. Chinese boxes. Our bodies are the outside box. Or the inside one if you like.”

People Ifs Body Boxes Chinese

Book:Canopus in Argos: Archives

Source: Canopus in Argos: Archives

“One novel in five hundred or a thousand has the quality a novel should have to make it a novel -- the quality of philosophy.”

Should Philosophy Quality Novel Five Thousand Hundred Should Have Golden Notebook

Book:The Golden Notebook

Source: The Golden Notebook

“Perhaps it is a fault of the species who thrive in peace, mutual help, aspirations for more of the same -- to forget that outside these borders dwell very different types of mind, feeding on different fuel.”

Mind Different Helping Forget Type Faults Species Borders Aspiration Fuel Thrive Mutual Feeding Mutual Help

Book:Shikasta (Canopus in Argos: Archives Series, Book 1)

Source: Shikasta (Canopus in Argos: Archives Series, Book 1)

“At no time, anywhere, was the population of a country told the truth: facts about events trickled into general consciousness much later, if ever.”

Ifs Country Facts Consciousness Events Population

Book:Shikasta: Re, Colonised Planet 5

Source: Shikasta: Re, Colonised Planet 5

“If what we think now is different from what we thought then, we can take it for granted that what we think in a year will be different again.”

Ifs Thinking Years Different Granted

Book:Canopus in Argos: Archives

Source: Canopus in Argos: Archives