Doris Lessing

We use our parents like recurring dreams, to be entered into when needed. ”

Sometimes I think what I write is funny in its quiet way. ”

I don't write well when I'm sitting there sweating about every single phrase. ”

It is very enjoyable, writing a story. You get this idea. It takes hold of you. And then you spend day and night thinking about how to do it. And then you do it. And much later, you think, 'Oh, yes. That's an interesting question.' ”

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 before I popped off. ”

When you're young you think that you're going to sail into a lovely lake of quietude and peace. This is profoundly untrue. ”

Pleasure resorts are like film stars and royalty... embarrassed by the figures they cut in the fantasies of people who have never met them. ”

For the last third of life there remains only work. It alone is always stimulating, rejuvenating, exciting and satisfying. ”

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. ”

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