You know, when I was a girl, the idea that the British Empire could ever end was absolutely inconceivable. And it just disappeared, like all the other empires. Doris Lessing
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. Doris Lessing
You cannot escape the fact that women mould your first five years, whether you like it or not. And I can't say I do like it very much. Doris Lessing
When young I did my best to undo that bit of the British Empire I found myself in: that is, old Southern Rhodesia. Doris Lessing
There's always this sense of incredulity that writers feel, because they're usually living flat and ordinary lives, because they have to. Doris Lessing
The Nobel Prize is run by a self-perpetuated committee. They vote for themselves and get the world's publishing industry to jump to their tune. Doris Lessing
Pleasure resorts are like film stars and royalty... embarrassed by the figures they cut in the fantasies of people who have never met them. Doris Lessing
Men are restless, adventurous. Women are conservative - despite what current ideology says. Doris Lessing
It is terrible to destroy a person's picture of himself in the interests of truth or some other abstraction. Doris Lessing
I've won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one. I'm delighted to win them all, the whole lot. Doris Lessing
September 11 was terrible but, if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn't that terrible. Doris Lessing
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. Doris Lessing