“ I've felt as if I didn't exist, as if I were invisible, miles away from the world, miles away. You can't imagine how much alone I've been all my life. Iris Murdoch
“ Sometimes I felt I would die by wishing it when I went to sleep but I always woke up again and found I was still there. Every morning finding I'm still me, that's hell.Well, get out of hell then! The… Iris Murdoch
“ As I lay there, listening to the soft slap of the sea, and thinking these sad and strange thoughts, more and more and more stars had gathered, obliterating the separateness of the Milky Way and fillin… Iris Murdoch
“ And I thought, rolling my head to and fro between my hands in anguish, oh if only it could have worked somehow for us two. Iris Murdoch
“ As it is I crawl on everyday towards the tomb. When I wake in the morning I think first of death, do you? Iris Murdoch
“ We are all potentially demons to each other, but some close relationships are saved from this fate. Iris Murdoch
“ Of course one never knows about other people's loves, and I would certainly never know about James's. Iris Murdoch
“ How sad for those who cannot enjoy what are after all prime pleasures of daily life, and perhaps for some the only ones, eating and drinking. Iris Murdoch
“ Of course we live in dreams and by dreams, and even in a disciplined spiritual life, in some ways especially there, it is hard to distinguish dream from reality. In ordinary human affairs humble commo… Iris Murdoch
“ Her eyes, which refused to meet mine, had the defensive coldness of those who are determined to lose hope. Iris Murdoch
“ If there is any fruitless mental torment which is greater than that of jealousy it is perhaps remorse. Even the pains of loss may be less searching; and often of course these agonies combine, as now t… Iris Murdoch
“ One can be too ingenious in trying to search out the truth. Sometimes one must simply respect its veiled face. Of course this is a love story. Iris Murdoch
“ But whatever she was I loved her and was committed to her and had always been, here and out beyond the stars, those stars behind stars behind stars which I had seen that night when I lay on the rocks… Iris Murdoch
“ You seem to think the past is unreal, a pit full of ghosts. But to me the past is in some ways the most real thing of all, and loyalty to it the most important thing of all. Iris Murdoch
“ I had deluded myself throughout by the idea of reviving a secret love which did not exist at all. Iris Murdoch
“ And she did seem then to go to sleep instantly: the quick flight into oblivion of the chronically unhappy person. Iris Murdoch
“ It's not so easy.What isn't?To establish relationships, you can't just elect people, it can't be done by thinking and willing. Iris Murdoch
“ I contemplated her, seeing her young bland face looking at me, now removed as if behind a gauze curtain. She quietly invited me to suffer. There was a great space now, a great silent hall in which thi… Iris Murdoch
“ To say we were 'in love', that vague weakened phrase, cannot express it. We loved each other, we lived in each other, through each other, by each other. We were each other. Why was it such pure unadul… Iris Murdoch
