Monday, December 10, 2007

Doris Lessing

from Nobel Lecture December 7th 2007

'The storyteller is deep inside everyone of us. The story-maker is always with us. Let us suppose our world is attacked by war, by the horrors that we all of us easily imagine. Let us suppose floods wash through our cities, the seas rise ... but the storyteller will be there, for it is our imaginations which shape us, keep us, create us – for good and for ill. It is our stories, the storyteller, that will recreate us, when we are torn, hurt, even destroyed. It is the storyteller, the dream-maker, the myth-maker, that is our phoenix, what we are at our best, when we are our most creative.'

Read full text by clicking on this link here.

© NOBEL FOUNDATION 2007

4 comments:

Lucy V said...

I absolutely love Doris Lessing but I'm troubled by her apparent rejection of her children so she could write. I don't see why she couldn't do both?

Near by said...

She doesn't have too many good things to say about her own mother either.

I suppose it depends on their characters - wet, clingy or co-dependent could drive anyone to extreme measures....

Elinor said...

I love Doris Lessing's books even the metaphysical ones. I heard her say in interview that she and her children are reconciled now though I know what you mean, I couldn't imagine doing that myself. As ever I suppose you can love the art but not the artist. Far from the pram in the hall being the enemy of promise, I always say, have a baby, you won't half get a lot of work done.

VW said...

Her mothering skills aside - thank you so much, FSW, for posting this eloquent quote. I really needed to read this today - glad I stopped by for a visit.