"These years are still the years of my prime. It is important to recognise the years of one's prime, always remember that."
— Muriel Spark (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)

"...it never really occurred to her that literary men, if they like women at all, do not want literary women but girls."
— Muriel Spark (The Girls of Slender Means)

""Allow me, in conclusion, to congratulate you warmly upon your sexual intercourse, as well as your singing.""
— Muriel Spark (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)

"The word "education" comes from the root e from ex, out, and duco, I lead. It means a leading out. To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul."
— Muriel Spark (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)

"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

"Beware the ire of the calm."
— Muriel Spark

"It is not because we are rats that we tend to abandon people who are down, it is because we are embarrassed. "
— Muriel Spark (A Far Cry from Kensington)

"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

"Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions."
— Muriel Spark (The Girls of Slender Means)

"I write as a Scot and I write as a Catholic. I don't even have to think about it. That's there like your freckles you know."
— Muriel Spark

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

""I write as a Scot and I write as a Catholic. I don’t even have to think about it. That’s there like your freckles you know."
"
— Muriel Spark

"I write as a Scot and I write as a Catholic. It's there like your freckles, you know. "
— Muriel Spark