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" 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.' "

Doris Lessing

Night

Think

Writing

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Doris Lessing

Never

Always

" God knows why nobody ever learns from the preceding generation - but they don't. "

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

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" I do not think writers ought ever to sit down and think they must write about some cause, or theme, or something. If they write about their own experiences, something true is going to emerge. "

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" In university they don't tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools. "

" 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. "

Doris Lessing

Child

Myself

" The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion. "

" I don't think in terms of optimism and pessimism when writing a story. I am telling a story. "

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

" There was a time when young people respected learning and literature and now they don't. "

" What I really can't stand about the feminist revolution is that it produced some of the smuggest, most unselfcritical people the world has ever seen. They are horrible. "

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

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

" My father was in the First World War. "

" What really fascinates me is this need that is so strong now that if you read a work of the imagination you instantly have to say, 'Oh, what this really is is so-and-so,' reducing it to a simple formula. "

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