1,162 Quotes by Iris Murdoch

I struggled with a nebulous work which seemed now a nouvelle, now a vast novel, wherein a hero not unlike myself pursued, amid ghostly incidents, a series of reflections about life and art.

He can do anything he likes and I'm so lonely, oh so lonely— And I put up with it because there was nothing else to do—

Of course men play roles, but women play roles too, blanker ones. They have, in the play of life, fewer good lines.

The room had the rather sinister tedium which some bedrooms have, a sort of weary banality which is a reminder of death. A dressing table can be a terrible thing.

I felt blank dismay, instant fear for myself. I did not want to be involved in any mess of Priscilla's. I did not even want to have to be sorry for Priscilla.

Living with someone who hates you is—it drives you mad—

Arnold's 'joke' was too obscenely good not to be taken as a portent: it was the visible part of some huge invisible horror.

Tuesday? My whole concept of the future had crumpled.

Those who cry out the truth to an indifferent world too often weary, fall silent or come to doubt their own wit.