Doris Lessing

"The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion."

"For the last third of life there remains only work. It alone is always stimulating, rejuvenating, exciting and satisfying."

"There is only one real sin and that is to persuade oneself that the second best is anything but second best."

"The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion."

"We use our parents like recurring dreams, to be entered into when needed."

"Sometimes I think what I write is funny in its quiet way."