There is no beyond, there is only here, the infinitely small, infinitely great and utterly demanding present.
Iris MurdochArt is not cozy and it is not mocked. Art tells the only truth that ultimately matters. It is the light by which human things can be mended. And after art there is, let me assure you all, nothing.
Iris MurdochHow rarely can happiness be really innocent and not triumphant, not an insult to the deprived.
Iris MurdochTo lose somebody is to lose not only their person but all those modes and manifestations into which their person has flowed outwards; so that in losing a beloved one may find so many things, pictures, poems, melodies, places lost too: Dante, Avignon, a song of Shakespeare's, the Cornish sea.
Iris Murdoch