Muriel Spark Quotes

Quotes about:

I see no reason to keep silent about my enjoyment of the sound of my own voice as I work.

Muriel Spark

Voice, Sound, Quiet

Muriel Spark (2001). “Loitering with Intent”, p.80, New Directions Publishing

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She wasn't a person to whom things happen. She did all the happenings.

Muriel Spark

Persons, Happens, Happenings

Muriel Spark (2001). “Aiding and Abetting: A Novel”, p.76, Anchor

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If you choose the sort of life which has no conventional pattern you have to try to make an art of it, or it is a mess.

Muriel Spark

Art, Trying, Patterns

Muriel Spark (2015). “Robinson”, p.59, Canongate Books

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Ridicule is the only honorable weapon we have left.

Muriel Spark

Weapons, Honorable, Ridicule

Muriel Spark (2018). “A Good Comb: The Sayings of Muriel Spark”, p.21, New Directions Publishing

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A rebellion against a tyrant is only immoral when it hasn't got a chance.

Muriel Spark

Tyrants, Revolution, Chance

Muriel Spark (2015). “The Abbess of Crewe”, p.26, Canongate Books

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From my experience of life I believe my personal motto should be: 'Beware of any man bringing flowers.

Muriel Spark

Believe, Flower, Men

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Beware the ire of the calm.

Muriel Spark

Calm

Muriel Spark (2015). “The Abbess of Crewe”, p.22, Canongate Books

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everything happens to an artist; time is always redeemed, nothing is lost and wonders never cease.

Muriel Spark

Artist, Wonder, Lost

Muriel Spark (2001). “Loitering with Intent”, p.116, New Directions Publishing

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If I had my life over again I should form the habit of nightly composing myself to thoughts of death. I would practise, as it were, the remembrance of death. There is no other practice which so intensifies life. Death, when it approaches, ought not to take one by surprise. It should be part of the full expectancy of life. Without an ever-present sense of death life is insipid.

Muriel Spark

Death, Practice, Eggs

"The prime of Miss Jean Brodie; The comforters; The only problem; The driver's seat; Memento mori".

24 Copy quote
I never trust the airlines from those countries where the pilots believe in the afterlife. You are safer when they don't.

Muriel Spark

Country, Believe, Afterlife

Muriel Spark (1994). “The Driver's Seat”, p.68, New Directions Publishing

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You look for one thing and you find another.

Muriel Spark

Looks, One Thing

Muriel Spark (2014). “Memento Mori”, p.131, New Directions Publishing

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To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul.

Muriel Spark

Teacher, Soul, Great Education

'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' (1961) ch. 2

31 Copy quote
The true novelist is one who understands the work as a continuous poem, is a myth-maker, and the wonder of the art resides in the endless different ways of telling a story.

Muriel Spark

Art, Novelists, Different

FaceBook post by Muriel Spark from Oct 28, 2014

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If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat . . .

Muriel Spark

Cat, Writing, Pieces

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It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree, but smiles.

Muriel Spark

Smile, Men, Doe

Muriel Spark (2015). “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”, p.68, Canongate Books

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It is well, when in difficulties, to say never a word, neither black nor white. Speech is silver but silence is golden.

Muriel Spark

White, Silence, Black

Muriel Spark (2015). “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”, p.11, Canongate Books

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One's prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full.

Muriel Spark

Girl, Time, Growing Up

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ch. 1 (1961)

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Fiction to me is a kind of parable. You have got to make up your mind it's not true. Some kind of truth emerges from it, but it's not fact.

Muriel Spark

Mind, Fiction, Facts

6 Copy quote
Being in love is something like poetry. Certainly, you can analyze and expound its various senses and intentions, but there is always something left over, mysteriously hovering between music and meaning.

Muriel Spark

Being In Love, Love Is, Hovering

Muriel Spark (2014). “The Informed Air: Essays”, p.187, New Directions Publishing

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The sacrifice of pleasures is of course itself a pleasure.

Muriel Spark

Happiness, Sacrifice, Pleasure

Muriel Spark (2014). “Loitering with Intent”, p.42, New Directions Publishing

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Contradictions in human character are one of its most consistent notes.

Muriel Spark

Character, Contradiction, Notes

Muriel Spark (2014). “Loitering with Intent”, p.16, New Directions Publishing

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It is impossible to repent of love. The sin of love does not exist.

Muriel Spark

Love, Doe, Impossible

Muriel Spark (2012). “The Mandelbaum Gate: A Novel”, p.58, Open Road Media

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If you're going to do a thing, you should do it thoroughly. If you're going to be a Christian, you may as well be a Catholic.

Muriel Spark

Christian, Catholic, May

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It is one of the secrets of Nature in its mood of mockery that fine weather lays heavier weight on the mind and hearts of the depressed and the inwardly tormented than does a really bad day with dark rain sniveling continuously and sympathetically from a dirty sky.

Muriel Spark

Rain, Dirty, Bad Day

Muriel Spark (2012). “Territorial Rights: A Novel”, p.46, Open Road Media

40 Copy quote
Frankness is usually a euphemism for rudeness.

Muriel Spark

Rudeness, Euphemism, Frankness

Muriel Spark (2014). “Loitering with Intent”, p.42, New Directions Publishing

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Born: February 1, 1918
Died: April 13, 2006
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

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