“If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work ... the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle placidly under the desk lamp ... The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding. And the tranquility of the cat will gradually come to affect you, sitting there at your desk, so that all the excitable qualities that impede your concentration compose themselves and give your mind back the self-command it has lost. You need not watch the cat all the time. Its presence alone is enough. The effect of a cat on your concentration is remarkable, very mysterious.”
Muriel Spark“The sparkle and morning-freshness of the shop, and the butter-conjuring girl, formed a mind-picture which accompanied the whole of my youth.(about the Buttercup Dairy)”
Muriel Spark, Curriculum Vitae: Autobiography“It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree, but smiles.”
Muriel Spark“To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul. To Miss Mackay it is a putting in of something that is not there, and that is not what I call education. I call it intrusion.”
Muriel Spark“When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality.”
Muriel Spark“Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.”
Muriel Spark“Parents learn a lot from their children about coping with life.”
Muriel Spark“It is impossible to repent of love. The sin of love does not exist.”
Muriel Spark“It is impossible to persuade a man who does not disagree but smiles.”
Muriel Spark“Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.”
Muriel Spark“To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul.”
Muriel Spark