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" I got married and I had children because of the Second World War, as all of us did, exclaiming, 'Oh, no, we are never going to bring a child into this wicked world,' but we had children by the dozen and got married. "

Doris Lessing

Children

World

War

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Doris Lessing

Pretty

Boring

" I never stopped reading. "

" If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then cat is a diagram and pattern of subtle air. "

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" What the feminists want of me is something they haven't examined because it comes from religion. They want me to bear witness. "

Doris Lessing

Bear

Want

" My mother was a woman who was very frustrated. She had a great deal of ability, and all this energy went into me and my brother. "

" That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way. "

" It usually takes me a year to do a book. A year or eighteen months. "

Doris Lessing

Eighteen

Months

" Some people obtain fame, others deserve it. "

" What is a hero without love for mankind. "

" I hate Iran. I hate the Iranian government. It's a cruel and evil government. "

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

" I wanted to highlight that whole dreadful process in book publishing that 'nothing succeeds like success.' "

Doris Lessing

Nothing

Process

" You know, looking at it objectively, I've written one or two good books. "

" I think a lot of romanticizing has gone on with the women's movement. "

" I do not think that marriage is one of my talents. I've been much happier unmarried than married. "

" There is only one real sin and that is to persuade oneself that the second best is anything but second best. "

" The thing is, I haven't changed at all. "

Doris Lessing

Changed

Thing

" I would not be at all surprised to find out... that the dimensions of buildings affect us in ways we don't guess. "

" Things are not quite so simple always as black and white. "