to be understood is not a human right. Even to understand oneself is not a human right.
Iris MurdochThere is no substitute for the comfort supplied by the utterly taken-for-granted relationship.
Iris MurdochArt is a kind of artificial memory and the pain which attends all serious art is a sense of that factitiousness.
Iris MurdochEating reveals the characteristic grossness of the human race and also the in-built failure of its satisfactions. We arrive eager, we stuff ourselves and we go away depressed and disappointed and probably feeling a bit queasy into the bargain. It's an image of the dรฉรงu in human existence. A greedy start and a stupefied finish. Waiters, who are constantly observing this cycle, must be the most disillusioned of men.
Iris Murdoch