The quotations of

Doris Lessing

British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer, and short story writer

1919–2013

12 quotes, most often on Writing, Politics and Education.

We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always known.
The Golden Notebook (1962), Paul Tanner, in “Free Women: 1”
- Intelligence
- Truth & Lies
All political movements are like this — we are in the right, everyone else is in the wrong. The people on our own side who disagree with us are heretics, and they start becoming enemies.
Salon interview (1997)
- Enemies
- Politics
I’m always astounded at the way we automatically look at what divides and separates us. We never look at what people have in common.
Salon interview (1997)
What’s terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is the 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.
The Golden Notebook (1962), Anna Wulf, in “Free Women: 2”
- Love
- Work
Literature is analysis after the event.
The Golden Notebook (1962)
- Writing
Political correctness is the natural continuum from the party line.
The Sunday Times (London, 10 May 1992)
- Politics
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.
The Sunday Times (London, 10 May 1992)
- Age
- Change
Space or science fiction has become a dialect for our time.
The Guardian, London (7 November 1988)
- Writing
Parents should leave books lying around marked “forbidden” if they want their children to read.
Interview with Amanda Craig, “Grand dame of letters who’s not going quietly”, The Times (London, 23 November 2003, reprinted 3 June 2004)
- Children
- Reading
In university they don’t tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools.
Martha Quest (1952), Part III, ch. 2
- Education
- Laws
That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.
The Four-Gated City (1969)
- Education
- Knowledge
I do not think writers ought ever to sit down and think they must write about some cause, or theme… If they write about their own experiences, something true is going to emerge.
“Literature Nobel Awarded to Writer Doris Lessing” All Things Considered NPR (11 October 2007)
- Experience
- Writing

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