Iris Murdoch

We defend ourselves by descriptions and tame the world by generalizing. What does he fear? is usually the key to the artist’s mind. Art is so often a barrier.

The first glimpse of someone’s face after they have made an irrevocable gesture of affection is always instructive and moving.

A serious kiss can alter the world and should not be allowed to take place simply because the scene will be disfigured without it.

‘So,’ said Francis. ‘Priscilla is in hell. Well, we all are. Life is torture, consciousness is torture. All our little devices are just morphia to stop us from screaming.’

I’m a damned clever woman who wants to have fun for the rest of her life, real fun, and happiness, not just emotional messes.

‘An alternative would be to do what you do. Finish nothing, publish nothing, nourish a continual grudge against the world, and live with an unrealized idea of perfection which makes you feel superior to those who try and fail.’
‘How clearly you put it.’

‘Because, my dear Julian, pure ignorant young girls cannot save complicated neurotic over—educated older men from disaster, however much they kid themselves that they can.’

The act of falling in love, of really falling in love (I do not mean what sometimes passes by this name), floods the being with immediate ecstasy.

I felt a void the size of an opera house where my stomach might have been and through the middle of it travelled the great scar of desire. I felt a cringing fear of which I could not determine whether it was physical or mental, and a sense that soon I might somehow lose control of myself, shout, vomit, faint.

‘What can I do to prove that I love you absolutely?’
‘I don’t see that you can do anything.’
‘I shall jump out of the car.’
‘Don’t be silly.’
‘I shall.’
And the next moment she had.