Doris Lessing Quotes

I just write the stuff I want to at the time, what feels right for me.

I think anything that anyone writes that's any good is going to have a lot of autobiography.

I actually started writing publishable stuff the day I decided I'd actually like to write something I'd like to read, and stopped trying to think what does everyone actually want.

It's so easy for me to do a boy-bashing pop song, but to sit down and write honestly about something that's really close to me, something I've been through, it's a totally different thing.

I prefer writing originals.

The first audience that you have when writing a book is you.

I started writing because I found I could spend more time in my own imagination by doing that than I could by reading.

I guess I could say that I pursue questions that interest me in ways that interest me on the page, but that's awfully vague.

I just sit down and the page just comes out and I look at it and the elements that appear on that page have a lot to do with what's going on in my life.

I love to write. I used to be a math teacher. And I like the idea that other people could write about the same subjects, but no one would write it just the way I do. It's very individual: a child could write the same story as somebody else, but it wouldn't come out the same.

Everything I know, I write about. My only research is what I did.

I never reflect or convey that which I have not experienced myself.

I want to get within myself and write. I really, really want to write.

I've always written about things that cause me to feel something.

Write because you love it and not because it is something that you think you should do. Always write about something or somebody you know about - something that you feel deeply and passionately about. Never try and force it.

People say there's a book in everyone but I'm not sure there is. There might be a pamphlet in me.

I don't know how I do it, but I've written about everything. I've written about my shoes.

When you start writing about the stuff that is the central experience of your own life, you can talk about whatever you want, in whatever way you want.

When I write for myself, I think about myself and draw from my own experience.

Write the story you need to tell and want to read. It's impossible to know what others want, so don't waste time trying to guess.

The essays are very solipsistic and self-absorbed, I'm totally conscious of that. To me, book writing is fun, and I basically just write about things that are entertaining to myself.

I try not to observe myself in the process of composing a poem because I don't want to come up with a formula, which I would then be unscrupulous in using.

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

My greatest achievement is being able to write records that are real snapshots of what's going on in my life. I won't repeat myself for the sake of commerce, or to please other people.

Write a book you'd like to read. If you wouldn't read it, why would anybody else? Don't write for a perceived audience or market. It may well have vanished by the time your book's ready.