Doris Lessing Quotes & Sayings (Page 4)

“When young I did my best to undo that bit of the British Empire I found myself in: that is, old Southern Rhodesia.”

“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.”

“There's always this sense of incredulity that writers feel, because they're usually living flat and ordinary lives, because they have to.”

“I don't know much about creative writing programs. But they're not telling the truth if they don't teach, one, that writing is hard work, and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer.”

“This world is run by people who know how to do things. They know how things work. They are equipped. Up there, there's a layer of people who run everything. But we - we're just peasants. We don't understand what's going on, and we can't do anything.”

“When I was bringing up a child, I taught myself to write in very short, concentrated bursts. If I had a weekend, or a week, I'd do unbelievable amounts of work.”

“I don't think that the feminist movement has done much for the characters of women.”

“Space or science fiction has become a dialect for our time.”

“I'm very unhappy when I'm not writing.”

“I didn't go to school much, so I taught myself what I knew from reading.”