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Doris Lessing Quotes about Country

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The Golden Notebook for some reason surprised people but it was no more than you would hear women say in their kitchens every day in any country... I was really astounded that some people were shocked.

The Golden Notebook for some reason surprised people but it was no more than you would hear women say in their kitchens every day in any country... I was really astounded that some people were shocked.

Doris Lessing
Notebook, Country, People
"Doris Lessing: being a woman writer". Undated profile at the BBC World Service, www.bbc.co.uk.

At no time, anywhere, was the population of a country told the truth: facts about events trickled into general consciousness much later, if ever.

Doris Lessing
Country, Events, Population
Doris Lessing (2010). “Shikasta: Re, Colonised Planet 5”, p.198, Vintage

When old settlers say 'One has to understand the country,' what they mean is, 'You have to get used to our ideas about the native.' They are saying in effect, 'Learn our ideas, or otherwise get out; we don't want you.'

Doris Lessing
Country, Mean, Ideas
'The Grass is Singing' (1950) ch. 1

It is quite easy to remark the absurdities and contradictions of a country's social system from outside its borders, but very difficult if one has been brought up in it.

Doris Lessing
Country, Borders, Easy
Doris May Lessing (1991). “Martha Quest”, Plume

Why were the Europeans bothered about the Soviet Union at all? It was nothing to do with us. China had nothing to do with us. Why were we not building, without reference to the Soviet Union, a good society in our own countries? But no, we were all - in one way or another - obsessed with the bloody Soviet Union, which was a disaster. What people were supporting was failure. And continually justifying it.

Doris Lessing
Country, People, Unions
"A Notorious Life". Interview with Dwight Garner, www.salon.com. November 11, 1997.

The novel has become a function of the fragmented society, the fragmented consciousness. Human beings are so divided, are becoming more and more divided, and more subdivided in themselves, reflecting the world, that they reach out desperately, not knowing they do it, for information about other groups inside their own country, let alone about groups in other countries. It is a blind grasping out for their own wholeness, and the novel-report is a means toward it.

Doris Lessing
Country, Mean, Knowing
"The Golden Notebook (Free Women: 1)". Book by Doris Lessing, 1962.

There are many feminists who work in the media, and they think that feminism is very important. It is in their own lives, but mostly feminism has had an impact among privileged women in the advanced Western countries. For the most part, it hasn't begun to touch the lives of poor and working women in the Third World, and that distresses me.

Doris Lessing
Country, Thinking, Feminist
Source: progressive.org

America can be a very hysterical country intellectually and very puritanical, too. You probably have fun in private, but to the rest of the world you seem to hate fun - to be big on agendas and short on spontaneity. The image you present is one of appalling conformity. The thought police is what you are ruled by.

Doris Lessing
Country, Fun, Hate
Source: progressive.org

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