22 October: Doris Lessing

The author Doris Lessing was born in Iran on 22 October 1919. Here are 10 Doris Lessing quotes:

1. What is a hero without love for mankind.
2. Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so.
3. If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then cat is a diagram and pattern of subtle air.
4. That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way.
5. In the writing process, the more a story cooks, the better.
6. 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.
7. A writer falls in love with an idea and gets carried away.
8. It's amazing what you find out about yourself when you write in the first person about someone very different from you.
9. There is nothing more boring for an intelligent woman than to spend endless amounts of time with small children.
10. There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.