Literary Birthday - 22 October - Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing was born 22 October 1919, and died 17 November 2013

Doris Lessing: 10 Quotes On Writing

  1. As you start to write at once the question begins to insist: Why do you remember this and not that? Why do you remember in every detail a whole week, month, more, of a long ago year, but then complete dark, a blank? How do you know that what you remember is more important than what you don’t?
  3. Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself. 
  5. In the writing process, the more a story cooks, the better. 
  9. What I had that others didn’t was a capacity for sticking to it.
  10. I’m very unhappy when I’m not writing. I need to write. I think it’s possibly some kind of psychological balancing mechanism—but that’s not only true for writers … anybody. I think that we’re always … just a step away from lunacy anyway, and we need something to keep us balanced.

Doris Lessing was a British novelist, poet, playwright, biographer and short story writer. She was born in Persia and spent her childhood and early adulthood in Southern Africa, before settling in London.
Lessing wrote more than 40 books of fiction and non-fiction, including science-fiction novels and two autobiographical books. She was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. Lessing was the 11th woman and the oldest ever person to receive the prize. 

Image of Doris Lessing 




7 responses
All 10 are worthwhile, but numbers 6, 7 and 10 nail it for me.
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