"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."

Literature

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Insight & Reflection

Words carry weight, and Doris Lessing's insight into literature is no exception. It serves as a gentle reminder that amidst the chaos of modern life, timeless wisdom still holds the power to guide our decisions and clarify our values.

About Doris Lessing

Doris May Lessing was a British novelist – sometimes identified as Rhodesian early in her career – and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007. Lessing was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until she was 6 in 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia, where she remained until moving to London, England, in 1949. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing (1950), the sequence of five novels collectively called Children of Violence (1952–1969), The Golden Notebook (1962), The Good Terrorist (1985), and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979–1983).

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Editorial Note: This quote is curated and fact-checked by the ShortQuote Editorial Team. Verified Literature Specialist.

More by Doris Lessing

"Intelligence barred…quarrelling, sulking, anger, silences of withdrawal, accusations and tears. Above all, intelligence forbids tears."

— Doris Lessing
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"Space or science fiction has become a dialect for our time."

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

— Doris Lessing
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"What society doesn't realize is that in the past, ordinary people respected learning. They respected books, and they don't now, or not very much. That whole respect for serious literature and learning has disappeared."

— Doris Lessing
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More about Literature

"No, I got a GED in my 30s. My kids know that I never stop learning, and they know I love reading. I have books overflowing everywhere. I am current on today's events and I read the paper every day, and we talk about it, so they see that appetite."

— Michael J. Fox
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"I'd like to write a history, maybe of the Reformation."

— Jane Haddam
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"Everyone's clamoring for the fourth book in the 'Fifty Shades' trilogy, which makes me laugh. Just the part of 'a fourth book in trilogy' that makes me laugh, not the clamoring for the next book."

— E. L. James
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"A word after a word after a word is power."

— Margaret Atwood
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