I am a person who continually destroys the possibilities of a future because of the numbers of alternative viewpoints I can focus on the present.
Doris LessingRead
The critics slap labels on you and then expect you to talk inside their terms.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Critics may try to define you through their own perspectives, limiting your expression.
This quote by Doris Lessing highlights the tendency of critics to impose their own labels and definitions on individuals, thereby restricting their freedom to express themselves authentically. It underscores the challenge of maintaining one's individuality and voice in the face of external expectations and judgments.
Themes
CriticsLabelsExpressionAuthenticityIndividuality
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the importance of staying true to oneself despite criticism.
More from Doris Lessing
All quotes βIn the writing process, the more the story cooks, the better. The brain works for you even when you are at rest. I find dreams particularly useful. I myself think a great deal before I go to sleep and the details sometimes unfold in the dream.
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Humanity's legacy of stories and storytelling is the most precious we have. All wisdom is in our stories and songs. A story is how we construct our experiences. At the very simplest, it can be: 'He/she was born, lived, died.' Probably that is the template of our stories - a beginning, middle, and end. This structure is in our minds.
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There is a great line of women stretching out behind you into the past, and you have to seek them out and find them in yourself and be conscious of them.
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The World War I, I'm a child of World War I. And I really know about the children of war. Because both my parents were both badly damaged by the war. My father, physically, and both mentally and emotionally. So, I know exactly what it's like to be brought up in an atmosphere of a continual harping on the war.
Doris LessingRead
You should write, first of all, to please yourself. You shouldn't care a damn about anybody else at all. But writing can't be a way of life - the important part of writing is living. You have to live in such a way that your writing emerges from it.
Doris LessingRead
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