Author: Doris Lessing

Cites

• Edward T. Hall (1)
  • IN: Under My Skin (1995) Non-Fiction, Autobiography, British
    EPIGRAPH: No matter where one looks on the face of the earth, wherever there are people, they can be observed syncing when music is played. There is popular misconception about music. Because there is a beat to music, the generally accepted belief is that the rhythm originates in the music, not that music is a highly specialized release of rhythms already in the individual. Otherwise how can one explain the close fit between ethnicity and music? Rhythm patterns may turn out to be one of the most basic personality traits that differentiates one individual from another ... when people converse... their brain waves even lock into a single unified sequence. When we talk to each other our central nervous systems mesh like two gears in a transmission. The power of rhythmic message within the group is as strong as anything I know. It is... a hidden force, like gravity, that holds groups together. I can remember being quite overwhelmed when I first made cinematographic recordings of groups of people in public. Not only were small groups in sync, but there were times when it seemd that all were part of a larger rhythm.
    FROM: The Dance of Life, (1983), Book, US
• Cole Porter (1)
  • IN: Under My Skin (1995) Non-Fiction, Autobiography, British
    EPIGRAPH: I've got you under my skin I've got you deep in the heart of me So deep in my heart you're really a part of me, I've got you under my skin. I've tried so not to give in...
    FROM: I've Got You Under My Skin, (1936), Song, US
• Louis Aragon (1)
  • IN: A Ripple from the Storm (1966) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: There is no passion for the absolute without the accompanying frenzy of the absolute. It is always accompanied by a certain exaltation, by which it may first be recognized and which is always working on the growing point, the focal point of destruction, at the risk of making it appear to such as have not been warned, that the passion for the absolute is the same as a passion for unhappiness.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, France
• Lewis Carroll (1)
  • IN: A Proper Marriage (1964) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: "You shouldn't make jokes," Alice said, "if it makes you so unhappy."
    FROM: Through the Looking-Glass, (1871), Novel, UK
• Olive Schreiner (1)
  • IN: Martha Quest (1952) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: I am so tired of it, and also tired of the future before it comes.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, South Africa
• W. B. Yeats (1)
  • IN: Love, Again (1941) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: One had a lovely face And two or three had charm, But charm and face were in vain Because the mountain grass Cannot but keep the form Where the mountain hare has lain.
    FROM: Memory, (1916), Poem, Ireland
• Idries Shah (1)
  • IN: Landlocked (1966) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: The Mulla walked into a shop one day. The owner came forward to serve him. "First things first," said Nasrudin: "did you see me walk into your shop?" "Of course." "Have you ever seen me before?" "Never in my life." "Then how do you know it is me?"
    FROM: The Sufis, (1964), NULL, India
• Robert Graves (1)
  • IN: The Cleft (2007) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: Man does, woman is.
    FROM: Man does, woman is., (1964), Book, UK
• Sage Mahmoud Shabistari (1)
  • IN: Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: If yonder raindrop should its heart disclose, Behold therein a hundred sea displayed. In every atom, if thou gaze aright, Thousands of reasoning beings are contained. The gnat in limbs doth match the elephant. In name is yonder drop as Nile's broad flood. In every grain a thousand harvests dwell. The world within a grain of millet's heart. The universe in the mosquito's wing contained. Upon one little spot within the heart Resteth the Lord and Master of the worlds. Therein two worlds commingled may be seen...
    FROM: The Secret Garden, (1350), Book, Iran
• Rachel Carson (2)
  • IN: Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: ...This minuscule world of the sand grains is also the world of inconceivably minute beings, which swim through the liquid film around a grain of sand as fish would swim through the ocean covering the sphere of the earth. Among this fauna and flora of the capillary water are single-celled animals and plants, water mites, shrimplike crustacea, insects, and the larvae of infinitely small worms -- all living, dying, swimming, feeding, breathing, reproducing in a world so small that our human senses cannot grasp its scale, a world in which the microdroplet of water separating one grain of sand from another is like a vast, dark sea.
    FROM: The Edge of the Sea, (1950), Book, US
  • IN: The Four-Gated City (1969) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: In its being and its meaning, this coast represents not merely an uneasy equilibrium of land and water masses; it is eloquent of a continuing change now actually in progress, a change being brought about by the life processes of living things. Perhaps the sense of this comes most clearly to one standing on a bridge between the Keys, looking out over miles of water, dotted with mangrove-covered islands to the horizon. This may seem a dreamy land, steeped in its past. But under the bridge a green mangrove seedling floats, long and slender, one end already beginning to show the development of roots, beginning to reach down through the water, ready to grasp and to root firmly in any muddy shoal that may life across its path. Over the years the mangroves bridge the water gaps between the islands; they extend the mainland; they create new islands. And the currents that stream under the bridge, carrying the mangrove seedling, are one with the currents that carry plankton to the coral animals building the offshore reef, creating a wall of rocklike solidity, a wall that one day may be added to the mainland. So this coast is built.
    FROM: The Edge of the Sea, (1955), Book, US
• NULL (1)
  • IN: The Sweetest Dream (2001) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: ‘And people leave who were warm children’
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, NULL

Cited by

• Jolene Tan (1)
  • IN: A Certain Exposure (2014) Fiction, novel, Singaporean
    EPIGRAPH: It's not a terrible thing-I mean, it may be terrible, but it's not damaging, it's not poisoning, to do without something, one wants [...] what's terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is first-rate.
    FROM: The Golden Notebook, (1962), Novel, NULL