The world is about the way in which our dreams intersect with our real life. Endlessly, the world of the imagination changes the world.

Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, power to retell it, to rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts.

If terrorism is to be defeated, the world of Islam must take on board the secularist-humanist principles on which the modern is based, and without which their countries' freedom will remain a distant dream.

optimism is a disease

You start at the stupid end of the book, and if you're lucky you finish at the smart end.

There are things you break that can't be put back together again. And Kashmir may be one of them.

Doris Lessing really doesn't care what the critics say. In fact, she orders her publishers not to send her the reviews and gets cross with them if they do because she doesn't want that in her head. She's going where she's going, and that's where she wants to go.